Parallel Worlds
by Dark Gear
Summary: Xenosaga meets post Halo 3, with some new chars far in the future for Halo. Gears of War gritty thinking.
1. Infiltration

Notice: I do not own Xenosaga Halo or Advent Rising or Gears of War (For combat scenes) or any of it's characters, only the ones I have created and copyright all names and references I have placed inside of this universe that were not created by Bamco, Bungie and Majesco.

_It had finished so long ago. That of a long foretold story that even the earliest records could not keep track of. One of an ancient race that we might have descended from, Humanity, the offspring of the forerunners. Heck, no one can remember who made Zarathustra, the 7 Rings, Atlantis or the Ark for the matter either. The three planets, Onyx, Crimson, and Azure, all were created with some meaning to attach to these machines created, all with a purpose, so that humanity could survive, but survive what? God? Hostile alien races? Or an infestation? No one, over all this time, has been able to discern anything from our past, only that two things out of the named have been destroyed, Zarathustra, and one of the 7 rings called Halo._

_100 years had passed since the fateful day when Earth was saved, when the Spartan known as the Master Chief saved humanity and the Elites, along with the grunts and hunters, as the flood was destroyed. The brutes jackals and prophets were pushed back, as the hive like bugs had their home world glassed by a surprise attack by a separate Elite fleet. The Covenant was shattered, as the new Alliance was created, humanity among it. The Spartan program became a footnote in history after so long however, and the Spartan IIIs disappeared into nothing._

_Unrest soon appeared on the edges of the rebuilding and budding alliance, forging a new empire. A new Spartan program was secretly placed in motion, the Spartan 4. Unfortunately, forerunner technology was used in the experiment, and the first two experiments died. Garrett, the third augmented child, had survived. His augmentations made him faster and stronger than anything the Spartan II or Spartan III could obtain, but at a high price. The program was being tracked, and the high secrecy of the project finally shunted all funding to different locations and erased all files. Garrett was written in as KIA. The new title he carries, is simply Spartan._

(Crystal Method, Name of the Game)

Garrett-003 clung to the side of the rocky cliff with tether lines and taut cables holding his half ton weight, his black Caduceus M10 armor no longer black, but shifting to coordinate its coloring to blend him into the rocky surface. The Active Camouflage from the Elite Alliance would come in handy at a later time, as it produced far too much heat to be turned on now for this Spartan 4.

Garrett flexed his wrist a bit as he waited for the go signal. It was still sore from his brief training in powered armor, as the ODSTs didn't exactly like letting the Spartan programs survive their rigorous combat training in the past he heard.

Three green taps over a period of 10 seconds told him to get under way. He swapped to IR sensors and watched as small blurs moved through the surrounding jungle, most likely the Hell jumpers providing backup. A final green light happened and he detached, dropping from 150 feet up and flipping his feet out under him, slamming into the ground and causing a slight crater to appear, before pumping his legs as fast as he could towards the rebel camp, 110 kph straight down into the valley.

His blue fluorescent reflective goggles almost screamed demon under the long black visor that was normally used for the standard marine. The armored mask under had more ballistic sheeting than anyone would actually realize, and the brand new state of the art M10 would prove that it had what it took to keep the soldier inside of it alive.

Garrett rushed through the jungle brush, came up behind a rebel soldier and right when he turned he was clothes lined by a large armored arm, snapping his neck in the process as the Spartan continued forward, not even stopping. He came to the edge near a clearing, and meshed with the background, the photo reactive paneling blurring him into the green and black. He waited 2 minutes before the ODSTs finally caught up with him, and gave the go ahead as the rebel soldiers started to change guard. A few quick kills later, they were in, the bodies hidden in empty barrels before everyone became a wisp of smoke, moving silently through the inside of the ammunition supply base, a front for a large research and archeological site.

Garrett's job was not to destroy the base per se, his job was to make sure the ODST's got what they needed from the computer systems for the links and transports, then disappear once a copy had been made. The AI was emplaced in the lead jumper's armor, now equipped with a slot in the back of his cervical casing. The M10 unfortunately didn't have the space available on it for an AI, the backup shields and extra sub space armory control systems took up the room. Garrett tilted his head slightly in thought. He had trained with the sub space armory use once and only once, and to this date had never gotten around to actually use it in any form of combat. The technology was part forerunner, part covenant, part human, allowing a very large amount of weaponry and vehicles to be carried around by one person, namely, him. The ammo replication system and repair system inside of the thing allowed a super soldier like him to be cut off from support for an enormous amount of time, but he was only one man, it was as a last resort. The vehicles and supply equipment placed were mostly for transportation and for assisting of other ground forces. However, once the vehicles stored inside were destroyed, it became an empty ethereal stockroom.

Garrett halted as the leader made the hand movement of incoming guards, and everyone, excluding Garrett, equipped their cling gloves and climbed the walls, literally. Garrett slid into the shadows and activated his active photo cells to blend into piping and metal plating. The guards walked by the hallway they were in, but before they finished, one of them stopped as it looked down the hallway, squinting. Garrett noticed it and looked into the wall with but a thought through his neural interface. A large amount of wiring was flowing through the pipe, and his onboard computer determined it was a control connection to a nearby heater. He concentrated, the OSA training he received allowed his hand to flow freely through the pipe as if it was water, and he tore apart some of the wiring to stop the heater from working. A warning light blinked on near the heater down the other hall and the guards stopped looking, and continued on. A blue light appeared on his HUD from the leader.

"good work" Lieutenant Archerson told him.

"anytime" he responded as he moved quickly through the other hallways, hiding where they could, killing silently where they couldn't.

As they reached the command room, the door slid open and Garrett came face to face with a bewildered woman in glasses, who squeaked once before having her neck snapped by a jumper behind her. Garrett felt slightly odd about what he was doing, so far they had killed 4 noncombatants, people who had seen them so they had to neutralize them. He knew they were working with the rebel insurgents, but killing a woman who in no way could have harmed them aside from calling for guards, it felt wrong. They could have simply knocked her out and tied her up somewhere, but he was going by the books. Those who lay eyes on him will not live to tell about it. Orders are orders.

The jumpers moved in swiftly, their MA7K rifles silently fired triple round bursts into nearby people, efficiently taking over the control room. The leader got to work, a wiz it seemed at hacking and counterintelligence. The AI, Morrigan, slipped into an open slot, a holographic vision of an old Soviet soldier Garrett had seen in books before, with a fur cap and all.

"coordinating and download as we speak comrade" Morrigan said as he stood at attention.

"good, I want all information shot to the Black Widow ASAP, bounce it through the weather satellites with 9th Echelon encryption sequences, that should keep em busy and under the radar" Archerson told him.

"understood, I will alert you when I am finished. However, there is something I believe I have found you would most likely wish to see" Morrigan slightly shifted. When Morrigan shifted on his feet, it usually meant something interesting they needed to check on.

"Show me" Archerson told the AI as a holographic image replaced the AI with an underground dig site. A small waypoint appeared overlaid above the holo screen pointing to an unknown energy source.

"feed this back to the widow as well, we aren't scientists, we aren't going near that thing until we find out what it's coming from" Archerson told the AI as he shook his head.

"but comrade, it might be best to at least scout it out before something… unwanted… happens because of it" Morrigan told him in a hushed voice.

"you think it could be a hazard?" Archerson asked.

"I think… that it might not be a good idea to let the object continue on it's course of action" Morrigan smiled. Garrett hated when he did that, the smile always gave him the creeps.

"damnit… we need more man power, have the elite stealth 101st get in here now, cover our flanks" Archerson told Morrigan

Morrigan saluted then disappeared as the signal was sent, and soon after, within 10 minutes of waiting, 5 eerie silhouettes appeared in the same room as they were.

"We are here as ordered" one of the figures said as the active camouflage turned off and 5 elites appeared.

"good. Continue on with sending this information to the satellite, keep an eye out for patrols and neutralize them, we might actually need to send in one of our own research groups into the depths of this place" Archerson ordered before nodding to Garrett.

"send one of your men with the two of us down into the dig site, we're going to find out what the hell this power source is we're detecting" he told the lead elite, who Garrett soon found out from his comps read out that his name was Adanee Machtamee, and had quite a record from what he was reading through the black widow's back logs.

"I will go myself if you do not mind Lieutenant, my men will stay here and guard the flank" Machtamee told him, and both agreed before Archerson nodded towards Garrett then motioned towards the door. All three of them left the room and slowly moved deeper into the complex, trying to find their way into the area where the power output was unstable.

"sir, I've got a spike reading every 9 seconds from where your going, it seems similar to an unstable Shaw-Fujikawa Drive, but something is off on it… I think… fix…" a communication from corporal Haverson was trying to get through, but was cutting out at random points.

"come back, your breaking up Haverson, what's the status ahead of us?" Archerson asked.

"time…repair…" and the line cut.

"we must have entered a shielded area, we must be cautious" Machtamee told Archerson, then nodded towards Garrett.

"Spartan, you've got point, Machtamee, cover his flank, watch the cross fire" Archerson ordered as both nodded and moved in.

The room was eerie, similar in design to an anti matter reactor engineering room, but oddly alien, and definitely old. Garrett slid along the wall like a ghost's shadow as Machtamee attempted to keep up with him.

"found something" Garrett whispered as Archerson came around back towards where they were. Garrett pointed at a large terminal near the middle with two research specialists taking notes. In the middle was an enormous ring, with a second ring spaced 3 inches around it's diameter. It seemed to be connected by a weight and tumble system to the first one, and in the middle there seemed to be a small platform with stairs leading to it. There was a small space between the stairs and the platform for the rings to move through apparently, and Garrett recorded all of it in the internal memory banks on his battle armor.

"we need to neutralize those men before we can get a clear reading, my armor's systems are getting abnormal information Captain" Machtamee said.

"understood" Archerson sighed, made hand movements for a sweep and clear, and moved forward from his hiding spot. Garrett sat back and swapped through a list of fire support weapons from the sub space armory as he readied the BR-55P from his armored back and watched Archerson and Machtamee come up from behind the scientists.

Both suddenly stopped as the scientists pressed a few buttons and called out through an intercom they were ready to commence with something. Archerson and Machtamee slid back to their hiding spots behind some stairs as the scientists started to press buttons. Power fluctuated and lights dimmed slightly as they fought to control whatever it was they were doing. Archerson and Machtamee attempted one more go before the two rings in the middle of the room started moving in opposite directions, and a small EM field was starting to be sensed by Garrett with his psionic abilities as well as the suit's sensors.

"initiating test" one of the scientists said, though Garrett was having a hard time tracking the voice coming from the mouth the words came from. The room was distorting slightly from his range, and he focused to keep track of his surroundings.

Archerson and Machtamee decided it was best to not attack just yet, wanting to see what it was the scientists were experimenting with.

"field is stabilizing, power grid nominal. No radiation detected like last time. 42 and climbing in portal transfer, matrix is becoming physical. We might just have it this time…" the scientist to the right, who Garrett had now found the name was Jeremy, smiled and chuckled.

"if we don't, that's another beer you owe me sir" the second one said, now known as Thomas.

Garrett stopped reading their minds for data as he heard a click come from behind Archerson and Machtamee. The Caduceus armor flipped out a 3D mobile view into his eyes, cross linked with his psionic senses to act as an invisible eye. His fluorescent goggles suddenly changed color from a sapphire blue to a glowing blood red as he concentrated.

A rifle had been placed at the base of Archerson's neck, and he relinquished his weapon as another rifle was aimed at Machtamee.

"right on time it seems, as always, for the UNSC to attempt to disrupt our work" was heard over an intercom.

"oh for the love of god…" Archerson sighed and turned slowly to find a squad of rebel soldiers aiming their weapons at both him and the elite.

"now now, there is no reason for you to needlessly throw your lives away on this mission. We were so much hoping that you would stay to help us in our experiment, we have it all warmed up for you" the sarcastic male voice continued over the intercom.

"eat shit and die" Archerson cursed under his breath as a soldier whacked him in the back of his legs as Machtamee surveyed the troops. MA6B assault rifles, armor piercing rounds from the red tape slightly shown on the bottom of the clips. He wouldn't last more than 4 seconds before cut down.

"now, for the two of you, how would you like to go on a little trip? You see, I'm not a bad person, I simply wish to continue my research and help mankind find faster ways of transportation, something that could revolutionize the industry, and of course, tide me a large profit in the marketing and fitting of said technology over very much of this glorious new empire humanity has created" the voice in the intercom said.

"you mean stolen forerunner technology? What, you didn't think you could slap a Terran federal patent on the damned thing and expect to call it workable!" Archerson yelled out, and was struck by a rifle butt, cracking his helmet's visor.

"ah, but you see, we have already done all of the work to contain the technology, to rebuild it, this is all ours right now you see captain. I simply extracted the plans from lost data crystals far below this station, and now this technology is ours. Can you not see the effects this will give us? Travel in the blink of an eye, move medicines where it is needed immediately, make faster than light travel obsolete! And who better than to test it than a veteran soldier, valiantly willing to give up his life for the betterment of mankind?" the voice said, echoing around the room.

"fuck you if you think I'll agree to any-" and a rifle butt slammed into the back of his head, knocking him out.

"unfortunately for you, I simply need you alive, not conscious captain. The two of you will make history today, mark my words" the voice finished.

_Wait, two he said? _Machtamee thought. They didn't know Garrett was still in the room, hiding out of view. Unfortunately for him, he had no idea what the Spartan would do to stop the situation.

Garrett hadn't anticipated this. He wasn't careful enough. That was his error. He should have been sweeping their backs with his mind as he watched point. ODSTs were good soldiers, but they were only human, a liability in his mind.

_Time to remedy this_ Garrett thought as he closed as quickly as he could from his cover, his active camouflage shimmering in the room as he moved across the place in quick motion. Before the first soldier knew what was happening, 9 rounds punctuated the air as a battle rifle cracked a triple round burst into him, followed by two more triple round bursts hitting the soldiers next to him, all head shots. The remaining 7 soldiers ducked for cover, but two were killed almost instantly by the elite's fast reflexes in gaining a fire arm to help. The soldiers sprayed wildly towards Garrett as he walked towards them, his twin link lightning flux shields shimmered slightly by the bullets, and his meter registered a slight alteration in power usage, nothing more.

Machtamee rolled towards cover, Archerson lay sprawled on the ground as gunfire was traded, before a grenade was thrown in his direction. Machtamee swore before leaping away and jumping behind the scientists, who just so happened to be cowering in plain sight before rifle fire pierced one of them through the chest, stray bullets from the soldiers.

Garrett moved silently around a pillar, evaluating the soldiers firing potshots at anything near them before throwing one of his own grenades into the mix, in which there was a prompt _BOOM!_ followed by 3 dead soldiers and 4 more checking the direction the explosive came from.

The Spartan moved like a snake back around the pillar, slid almost right behind the next soldier and pulled him around, sliding his combat knife from the back harness at his waist and impaling down into his chest, wiggling the blade around in an attempt to nick the heart before pulling it out.

Machtamee leapt up onto a terminal and started firing at the remaining 3 soldiers before the room started to vibrate and distort more fiercely than before. There was a strong gravitational pull towards the energy ball now being created in the middle of the oscillating rings, one that was sliding Archerson across the room towards it. Machtamee turned to see the body roll slightly before Garrett ran full throttle towards him, and as Machtamee turned back around, he suddenly found his shields collapse. He reflexively felt his body before looking up, only to hear a spray of bullets from one last soldier firing at him, then darkness.

The last soldier un slung a rocket launcher from his back and aimed at Garrett, now visible from the quick movements needed, and fired. The rocket whizzed behind the Spartan as he ran, full blown across the room towards Archerson's sliding form.

Archerson barely touched the edge of the energy ball floating in the middle of the rings, both stopping as the mass of flesh moved through their trajectory before starting again. Archerson disappeared into the ball before Garrett rushed to follow, diving straight in.


	2. Fly like a Brick

Garrett saw a massive flash of light as his goggles shutdown hud link and his connection sputtered to his armor from his cybernetics. He knew he was floating right now, where he had no clue.

He rebooted his OS systems and ran a diagnostic quickly, the goggles reinitializing from the transport. His armor's duel anti proton reactors dulled to a mere 10 of what they normally produced, though the iridium fuel cells and secondary generator started to rebuild the depleted power supply.

Garrett looked around to find himself floating in space, stars visible in most directions, until he activated the helmet rear camera. He found himself staring down at Earth. The external thrusters on his armor rolled him around to where he wanted to face as he looked around him. He had no idea where he was, or for that matter, why he didn't see what he was expecting to see. There were no orbital MAC platform battle clusters, no docking stations and certainly no ships visible with any UNSC insignia. The only thing he did see were two emergencies. One, was that his Altimeter suddenly activated, and it meant only one thing, that he had a very fast orbital decay rate and soon to drop like a brick through the atmosphere, and second, that Archerson was floating nearby, groggy but alive. His helmet didn't seem to have any problems from the small crack from the rifle, but he too was also losing orbital control and falling, and certainly couldn't survive the process without help.

Garrett activated his thrusters quickly as Archerson slowly awoke to his surroundings, the Caduceus armor anemically waking to the precision signals sent from Garrett's brain to the controls due to the lower power. The Spartan checked his shields, hoping against hope they would work and safely overlap over Archerson. Only one layer was functional at the moment, the other offline due to low power. It wasn't enough for two people exceeding orbit, which left only one thing.

Garrett slid through the sub space armory listings and found the Caduceus's Drop Suit external armoring package, and activated the initiation sequence. 5 of the suit's already depleted energy dropped immediately from it's recharge level of 17, scaring the life out of him as he saw the huge chunk of power discharge and flux behind him, as a cal chon red light blinked and burped inside the suit telling of the emergency energy level. He overrode the signal and engaged the external armoring package on his back, enveloping around his shoulders and arms just as he grappled Archerson… and just as his suit told him of the increasing temperature outside.

Garrett rolled and swapped the one layer of shields to cover an external source, protecting the hell jumper held in his arms as the re-entry armor on his back opened it's heat shield, the heat soak and heat load readings showing online.

Archerson was awake by now, and looking around, definitely scared at what was happening.

"don't worry sir, I have you securely held. We should be Augered-in in 9 minutes" Garrett said over his com suite. Archerson was still wide eyed at what was happening, partly due to the fact that 9 min was a very fast reentry, but then looked down past Garrett's huge armored shoulder to see Earth coming up fast to greet him.

"if anyone finds out about this little union we have here when we land son, I will personally make sure you are court marshaled" Archerson finally said before leaning his head against the big Spartan's arm.

"understood sir, I won't tell if you won't" he said before keeping track of his hud readings. Something was nearby, though nearby was still about 1 kilometer to his right. As he turned his head, he noticed something else entering the atmosphere, with what looked like a bluish tint flailing around it, and a bit small. Unfortunately for him, the tilt of his head caused the angle of the re-entry to alter slightly, and they slowly drifted towards the right towards the object, which was not something Garrett truly wanted. Anything that collided with them upon re-entry would definitely have dire consequences, especially with the ODST clutched in his arms and stopping him from repelling most of whatever the object was, and usually causing spallation.

As they drifted closer, the flames from the back of the drop armor roaring around them, the shields flickering madly, Garrett gained a slightly closer look at what it was that was entering alongside them towards Earth. It seemed to be a human form, female, with long blue hair, but something was wrong, she was missing her right arm and both legs, and she wasn't burning up like organic matter would instantly do upon heading down to Earth.

Garrett re-angled his armor to stop his movement. however, the object was now moving towards the anti grav magnets pulsing on the back of the giant backpack now attached to him, and he realized he may be in deep trouble. He tried to flux the magnets to move the object away, but all it simply did was roll the woman, whom was facing down towards the planet, now towards him, her left arm flailing across her chest like a rag doll.

The woman was almost next to them before his secondary shields recharged and flexed outwards, stopping her from getting any closer. Her hair was white, and the bluish tint seemed to be coming from the atmosphere burning away something fiber optic in her hair, as well as what definitely looked like machinery poking from the holes in her legs and right shoulder.

"what the… a robot?" Archerson asked.

"I don't know sir, but her frame seems fairly capable of surviving the re-entry, unlike us" Garrett responded, before a wing armor piece from her left shoulder broke away and disintegrated.

"I spoke too soon sir" he noted, before Archerson suddenly shot his hand out towards the body, the overlapping shields flickering and shimmering around his arm as the shields suddenly overlapped the body, now pulled close to Garrett as well.

Garrett watched quite annoyed as his first layer of shields slid to 75, still not quite reinforced due to the adaptive neural network inside the armor not learning enough about heat transfer to keep it at 90. Archerson looked up at him through his helmet.

"we may need some info from it's data logs on what is happening, for all we know it might be a droid sent through on a previous experiment" he tried to explain to the blue begoggled soldier he was laying on.

"sir, permission to speak freely" Garrett asked as he looked down at the white face and white hair now covered by his shields.

"permission granted" Archerson said.

Garrett turned to him. "that was the most stupidest thing I've ever seen, you had no idea my shields would have protected you from doing that, try not to fuck me over next time sir before warning me" Garrett said.

"noted. I'll try not to make you wet your suit next time" Archerson responded as they broke through the atmosphere and the armor behind them started to cool. Garrett waited 3 more minutes before his Altimeter told him to pop the boosters for 20 seconds. He gripped both Archerson and the woman's body hard before engaging the controls. The back top of the entry armor blew off attached to 8 cable lines, suddenly aligning Garrett and his two packages feet first, and making Archerson swear as his harness went taut from the Spartan's embrace.

20 seconds past before the booster snapped it's lines and they fell. Garrett counted the seconds before popping a triple wind bracer shield from the pack, Archerson swearing some more as the harness dug into his skin even through his armor. Garrett nearly lost his hold onto the woman's body as the jerk from the bracers hit, and shot his hand out to grab her left hand before reeling her in with Archerson's help. The bracers snapped as well, but slowing their downfall severly before blasting a triple chute from the back.

Garrett slowly maneuvered himself to land with his feet braced, and slammed hard into the ground of an open desert, what looked like Africa when he was coming down, hopefully near New Mombassa and hopefully near communication to any UNSC nearby. Archerson and the woman were set down as Garrett resumed his full seven feet height again, watching Archerson catch his breath as the female droid lay motionless on the ground.

"alright. Now, how do we fix this…" Archerson huffed as he thought for a second as Garrett looked around his surroundings, watching for any patrols he expected to be there, but never showed.

"damn it… this is Captain Archerson of the 115th calling for any support near New Mombassa, can anybody read me?" Archerson started to say into his helm. All he heard was static.

"That's odd… this is a military channel, it should be up at all times… this is Captain Archerson, anybody hear me? Anybody?" he said again, and again no response.

"maybe our coms are malfunctioning" he said before Garrett spoke out.

"this is Spartan 003 on black by red, calling all high command. Retrieval requested, mission unknown. Request response, flash priority over" the black armored man said as he connected to multiple spec ops channels. Still no response.

"orders sir?" Garrett finally asked Archerson as he plucked from his suit pocket a pair of sunglasses before staring at his helmet, the crack far larger now and the hud no longer functioning.

"I suggest we try and find New Mombassa corporal, considering we can't reach anybody and considering our little drop in, I'd say we're lucky we aren't getting a tac strike on our heads in the event we're some spec ops covie group. We'll download what we can from the droid later. If I remember correctly, NM is that way" Archerson said as he started walking in the same direction he pointed towards. Garrett stood there for a moment before looking down at the droid's frail body, before looking up at Archerson now turning around.

"What, you want me to carry her? Funny soldier. Pick her, it, up and follow me" he said before turning back around and continuing to walk. Garrett detached his drop armor as it dematerialized and kneeled down. From the looks of it, the droid was definitely made for being near humans as she had skin, eyes, a mouth, and was fairly beautiful, despite the no right arm or either leg problem. Her hair was as he had seen white now, but the tips were blue, proving his theory that her hair might have been long fiber optic lines, allowing it to maybe change color to suit infiltration needs.

Garrett pushed the thought aside and lifted the body up, which seemed slightly heavier than a normal woman's body, not that he would have noticed through the Caduceus armor. He strapped her to the magnetic paneling on his back and threw her left arm over his shoulder, her head leaning against his shoulder blade before standing back up and following the captain.

3 hours

"I can't understand this, we should have had some glimpse of civilization by now, why haven't we seen a god damned soul ANYHWERE?" Archerson said as he wiped his brow with the back of his gloved hand.

"no idea sir" Garrett said as he looked around, seeing the sun starting to set in the west.

"ideas are what I really need right now son, I wish you hadn't have said that…" Archerson sighed and continued walking on, towards a tree standing in the middle of the empty land. On the other side of the tree was a small pond of water, and beyond that were 20 other trees.

"I think we should set up camp here Spartan, though with what I have no idea" Archerson said as he sat down on a large rock half buried in the ground under the shade of the tree.

Garrett set the droid's body down on the ground, and as he did so, he noticed on her collar a name, KOS-MOS. Archerson leaned over to see what he was looking at.

"huh, KOS-MOS huh? Lemme guess, if it wasn't for this thing going through some sort of portal thing, it would have most likely been someone's sex bot right?" Archerson scoffed and looked around as Garrett carefully raised her chin and pressed at the collar softly before checking around her clothing for any sort of other identification.

"heh, coping a feel before ya dismantle her son? Didn't take you for that" Archerson chuckled.

Garrett looked up at him with his eerie blue goggles, staring at him before the captain looked away and Garrett continued, checking around her hand for any rings or bracelets while also letting his suit determine armor condition and damage of the body through his gloves. Garrett rolled her carefully over, moving his hand under what was left of her skirt, checking for a data cord normally on recon droids sent out from the UNSC, and normally found around the waistline, but nothing was there.

Garrett lowered what was left of the skirt and rolled her to her back, before picking her up and leaning her against the tree they were near.

"hey, I was gonna use that as my pillow tonight" Archerson glared at the armored man.

"I need room to build the camp, she was laying in a tent location" he responded before sorting through his systems power controls and sub space armory lists. His charge was at 60, good enough for prolonged combat, and would be full by tomorrow morning. He blinked once as he sorted the lists and found ground supplies, and initiated the transfer. Two tent packs appeared in mid air before dropping to the ground and sagging, as well as two crates, one of field rations, another of utensils and equipment, as well as condiments.

"what, no tv or kitchen sink?" Archerson raised an eyebrow before laughing.

Garrett started to open his tent pack as Archerson did the same, opening the two crates and before long they had a camp set with a fire pit in the middle.

"hey Corporal, food is almost ready, you gotta take that helmet off sometime to eat" the Captain grinned ear to ear as he served some food on two plates before sitting down. Garrett undid the latch and suction controls to his helmet before lifting it off with a hiss and setting it next to him. His hair was shorn close, marine style, and brown. His eyes were brown, with white skin, really white skin, almost as white as KOS-MOS's. However, unlike the android's body made to be snow white in color, his skin was due to being in his armor for so long. Both began to eat quietly as they watched the fire, the flames flicking out at the edges of the rocky circle and the wood burning fiercely.

"I'll take first watch tonight sir" Garrett suddenly said as he finished and cleaned his dishes before placing them into the crate again.

"hmmm, well, if you want to, however, I have a funny feeling things may not require… a guard. Just a feeling, but they usually are right" Archerson said, narrowing his eyes and looking around before resting them on KOS-MOS behind him, then getting up and placing his own plate into the crate and walking to the pond. He pulled out a long 2 cm pvc pipe with small grooves along the outside of it and a small suction cup at one end, and attached his canteen to it. He then sucked on the other end once before entering it into the water. The small pipe sounded as if it had suddenly turned on, filtering the stagnant water and forcing it into the canteen before the captain pulled it out and closed the cap.

"don't worry about watch tonight Spartan, there won't be a need. Trust me" Archerson said.

"very well sir" Garrett said as Archerson entered his tent.

"good night corporal. See you in the morning, and hopefully, we'll gain some answers and have a recovery transport here by then" the captain said before zipping the tent up.

"good night sir" Garrett said, and as the zipper finished closing, he reattached his helmet over his head and looked towards KOS-MOS one more time. She definitely registered as nonfunctioning on his armor's sensors, but that didn't always mean to let your guard down, something he learned from his training from the auto turrets used on him in practice runs.

Garrett reached out slightly with his hand towards the body, not wanting to touch it, more in a focusing effect, as his goggles changed red, then suddenly green. A data screen opened up as he read through logs, data storage, control OS and power controls before hearing a very faint voice.

_Good Night_

Garrett backed away suddenly and raised his rifle up to his shoulder instantly and scanned the surroundings. No one was around. He tracked anything he could, but nothing could be seen with his night vision at maximum and IR functioning.

Garrett relaxed slightly and turned back around towards KOS-MOS. He was about to raise his hand again when he knew that he'd been up for more than 48 hours, and while he had stayed up for far longer than that, he knew with the distortion that transported them that it might have affected his senses, and that he should get some sleep to remove any abnormal affect. His cells regenerated ten times faster than a normal human being, meaning almost instant, and therefore he could afford a few hours to recuperate and then try again.

Unfortunately for him, he did not realize he didn't sever the last of 5 links he had with the android.

The Spartan finally dozed off inside his tent, his auto defense sensors awakening him if anything hostile should come within a 1 kilometer radius on the ground, and he entered slumber land. He found himself in a field of flowers, and as he looked around, was suddenly standing 5 feet away from KOS-MOS, with what seemed to be legs and right arm back on her, and not a scratch as well. Her hair was blue again, light shining down brilliantly and making the tips of her hair sparkle.

"hello" she said to him right as he attempted to draw his rifle from his back and aim at her. He was crouching suddenly, and she was slightly surprised at how quickly he moved, taking 2 steps back from her as he surveyed the area. He was definitely a soldier, unlike anyone she had ever seen before or anything in her database. Even her memories of who she used to be couldn't derive any info on a soldier looking like him.

"I am not hostile, you do not need to worry about me harming you" KOS-MOS said softly and nodded with her hands palm up in a gesture of no weapons held.

The armored man looked around carefully as she said that, still aiming at her for a few more seconds before lowering the barrel from her and standing back at full height, which she until now had no idea was seven feet. He towered over her, almost double her height, and his armor seemed to drink in light around him. Two blue fluorescent oculars were under a long black visor on the helmet, and a black armored shock mask encompassed the goggles and covered his face, making it impossible to see anything of who he was besides the armor.

"who are you" he asked bluntly.

"my name is KOS-MOS" she responded.

"who built you, were you used in the teleportation experiment and why am I here. I remember going to sleep, therefore this must be a dream" he asked.

"I shall answer your questions as best I can. However, this may take some time. However, might I know your name?" she asked.

"Spartan" he said.

"Spartan? That is an odd name for a person. I apologize if that sounded rude, though it is still unusual. Is that what you are?" she asked.

"yes" he responded. He clearly wasn't caring for talking or divulging much information, and certainly didn't trust her yet.

"what is your name? please?" she asked.

No response.

"please. Humor me" she asked, trying to smile to make him feel at ease.

"Spartan" he said flatly.

"Spartan. Hmm. Do you have a last name?" she asked him, curious with his short answers.

"003" he told her.

"that is a designation number, not a…" she stopped for a moment. On his shoulder was a designation number, 003, along with an eagle claw grasping two thunderbolts. No other name was written on the outside of his armor.

"I see" she said. He wasn't a normal human being, that much she could discern from his height as well as the armor. It was almost as if he was similar to her, built for a specific combat purpose, but yet she had never seen or heard from any data records from Shion or anyone else in the past about any special projects besides the KOS-MOS project and T-elos, along with Merkabah and Omega Res Novae. This Spartan was definitely new, and with the approach to him being from a dream, she had no way of using her sensors to perform an armor check or internal scan of him.

"I shall do my best to answer your questions then Garrett, however, I must ask some questions of my own. Will you accept?" she asked.

"understood. Now, who built you?" he asked.

"Vector industries, first R&D division, later remodeled by Shion Uzuki and Allen Ridgeley" she said.

"remodeled? Is that what you call not having legs or a right arm?" he cocked his head backwards in a slight bit of surprise, then regained his composure.

"no, they did not do that to me, a large explosion caused by a gnosis was what caused the damage. My reactor was damaged in the process, so I will remain offline until it is repaired" she told him.

"Gnosis? What?" Garrett cocked his head even more.

"it is difficult to explain in the current time frame, you will have to make due with the next time we meet, if we ever do meet again. This connection that allows me to speak to you was because an unknown attachment to your aura was still lingering near my soul, and I reached out to talk. I-" she tried to finish but Garrett cut her off.

"soul? Androids don't have souls" he stated flatly.

"I… do. I cannot explain that, I simply do. You will have to trust in those words. It is small… from what she left me… but I am who I am, and it will grow" she said, slightly sad he stated so matter of factly she wasn't living.

"alright, I'll accept that for the time being, the second question I believe has been answered as well, as I have never heard of nor seen stock options for any business named Vector industries, however this might have been due to an underground marketing construction or it has not gone public. Therefore I-" and Garrett was next to be cut off.

"Vector industries builds 90 of all equipment ships and items for the federation, I doubt that you have not seen any of their items made that you have not used" she said.

"um… no. I have never heard of any business named Vector or anything associating with Vector, and care to explain what the federation is? Is that the new name for the rebel insurgents we've been suppressing?" Garrett asked.

"no, it is not. I believe this has opened more questions that I must ask now" KOS-MOS said, blinking slowly and sitting down on the bed of flowers. Garrett stood there, like a black statue against the sun before she motioned for him to sit. He kneeled, his armor she expected to make any sort of noise besides the slight stretch of Kevlar and undersuit she thought she heard, but the armor he wore seemed quite flexible.

"alright, more questions from both sides. I am hoping we have enough time to finish most of them tonight" Garrett said.

"I hope we do as well" KOS-MOS said. Both were about to speak when Garrett heard something.

"something is happening outside" he said, as the sensors were blaring.

"wait! Please, I must ask, if you find a power supply sufficient to awaken me, please, we would be able to speak agai" and the line cut with Garrett waking up.


	3. Crippled Princess

Garrett woke up quicker than lightning to a small tremor that was getting louder slowly. He was out of his tent with his rifle set before Archerson even woke up. He tapped on the tent side rapidly before Archerson unzipped the front and looked around, then felt the tremor.

"What the hell was that?" Archerson said before Garrett told him to be quiet and get dressed. Archerson got dressed quickly and put his rifle to his shoulder before sitting next to Garrett in a crouched position.

"See anything?" Archerson asked.

"nothing. It's not on visual but…" Garrett felt the tremor suddenly get stronger before 20 feet away from them a large worm like creature ripped out of the ground and roared.

"holy shit!" Archerson yelled as both unleashed 60 rounds in 3.5 seconds flat of high impact armor piercing bullets. Almost all of them hit, and all of them looked as if they had no effect as they struck some form of energy and were ignored.

"that is so not indigenous to this planet!" Archerson yelled as both dove out of the way as the worm tried to lash out with a quick bite. Garrett rolled to his feet and lunged, trying to grapple the worm and throw it. As he slammed into the side of it's chest, his shields flickered and strobed against it's unusual skin, almost watery in look, before the shields electrified and suddenly turned the skin into lizard scales, something he didn't expect.

More of the worms jumped out of the ground, puncturing through the crust like tentacles, all hostile.

"what the hell are these things? We can't hurt them!" Archerson yelled as he fired more rounds into one before backing up and reloading a new clip. Garrett punched the one he had in his hand with a full strike, and the worm roared in pain. He flipped back and unsung his rifle before firing a new clip into it and saw it slump.

Garrett couldn't figure out what was happening. One minute his bullets had no effect on the ethereal skin, the next minute he could rip apart the worm's head. The next worm rushed towards him as he dove backwards and rolled, slipped behind a tree and reloaded. He checked all HUD readouts before finally checking his shield frequency. Something was interesting involving the rotating modulation, as it was similar to a modified EMP effect in the data he retrieved from KOS-MOS.

Before he could read into it further the worm smashed through his cover and he rolled out of the way, firing wildly as he ran full blown behind it and flank the others to get their attention. He was moving slower than normal, partly due to his protectiveness of Archerson and also of the droid laying against the tree, otherwise he wouldn't even be seen as human, just a blur because of his augmentations. He needed to be a target, a second force to divert attacks to. He needed to be a meat shield.

Archerson leapt almost right under one of the worms as it tried to bite his head off and fired, the rounds having no effect. Garrett touched it and his shields had the same effect, an electric strike ran through the worm and it materialized, and the final 10 rounds Archerson fired tore into it's stomach.

Garrett checked the data as both pulled back and reloaded, slamming a clip home and raising it to his shoulder as the worms bull rushed them.

"Hilbert Effect huh…" he whispered as he fired another half a clip before altering his shields secondary emitter to fire at the same frequency. It was a clumsy endeavor, one that made him jump over the right frequency multiple times as he dodged and weaved around the worms to keep both him and Archerson alive.

Finally, Garrett had his emitter setup and fired it, the second shield dropping in a wide berth EMP wave Hilbert effect, as the range equaled 1 kilometer, as well as sending a wide range map ping of every worm in the area that was materialized. Garrett's motion sensor was off the charts as over 10,000 pings were registered nearby.

"dear god…" he whispered to himself as more worms jumped out of the ground, annoyed that they had been brought into a material plane of existence. Garrett heard the cal chon alarm inside his helmet ring as his second shield struggled to recharge quickly, the neural network in the armor rapidly trying to adapt it's pathways to keep it from happening again with the Hilbert effect in the future, and hopefully increase it's range.

Garrett blind fired the area as he ran backwards, Archerson doing the same as they tried to gain some distance.

"shit, hold up! The droid!" Archerson yelled as he pointed towards the tree where KOS-MOS was braced up against. The worms rushed towards the tree, straight at her as Garrett sprinted as fast as he could and leapt, gaining easily 10 meters straight up and covering a football field as he snapped his rifle to his back plating and opened his hip armor plates. Twin handles popped out as he flipped both through his fingers and ignited twin plasma blades, courtesy of the Elites, and came down on the worm's head as it was about to bite into KOS-MOS laying there. Over half a ton of Caduceus and Spartan slammed into it, slicing clean through with the blades in half moon arc as he continued forward, splitting another worm and placing the handles back into his hip armor before pulling his shotgun from his back armor and fired as the worms got close. Every time one was about to bite, he would fire a blast straight into it's mouth, blowing it's head clean off as he moved slowly forward.

Archerson watched as the Spartan moved deftly between the beasts, trying to help where he could. He didn't know if the Spartan's shields would ignore the attacks the worms used on him, or if the armor would protect him, but frankly, he didn't wanna find out anytime soon, and just hope Garrett could continue dodging. He knew very little about the armor Garrett wore, only that it ignored all sensor profiles and gave quite a bit of power to him, and that it for the most part ignored all small arms and even a good deal of the heavy arms used against it in testing, including Mk IV ARCHER anti ship missiles. The problem was, the armor was programmed to protect against and adapt to that impact, he had no idea what the network was doing right now to a brand new threat.

Suddenly, of all things, the worms disappeared back into the ground as a low groan was heard beneath the surface, and Garrett walked back to Archerson who panted.

"those bastards left? Why?" the Captain asked as he looked around worried.

"I dunno, but seismic sensors aren't detecting anything, radar shows blank and motion is zip. They're gone from the area sir" Garrett said as he saw his commanding officer lean up against the tree KOS-MOS was laying against and pull out his canteen.

"those were definitely not native. There's no such thing as a worm that size on Earth. Something is definitely wrong here" the hell jumper said between gulps.

"I can see that for myself sir" Garrett responded as he checked the area.

"how the hell did you get those things to be hurt by our guns? I saw your shields do something, what was it?" Archerson asked.

"it's called a Hilbert Effect, something I read through from the droid's OS logs. A special EMP wave that brings those beings into a material plane to be hit by a physical object, mainly, our weapons" he stated.

"wait, you read the droid's logs? Oh ya… those… abilities… well, what did you find out?" the Captain asked.

"I need a power supply to get her back up and running, I'm thinking I can jury rig her to my suit's reactors until a better system is available. At least she'd be more capable of giving us the info. I was cut off mid interrogation. I don't quite think I'd be able to do the same again in the future with the potential hostile threat in the area" Garrett told him as he reloaded 12 new shells into his shotgun.

"hmm, is that wise? I'm no specialist on that armor of yours, but, I don't know, she seems slightly… old tech? I mean… nanites… oy… and what, a Tritanium frame inside from what I see? I know your state of the art and most of the info was classified from what I read of your file, before you joined our squad… but… I dunno, I think your reactor could blow her up more than turn her on…" Archerson shook his head in thought, then looked up at the Spartan.

"I could check on my armory and look for an external power source, though that might take some time."

Archerson raised an eyebrow and waved his hands around a bit. "Corporal, look around you, time is definitely what we aren't lacking unless those worms come back. We're stranded on some odd world that shouldn't be Earth, yet it is, with hostile giant worm things thinking we're a late night snack. Get it done son. I wanna know what she knows. Yesterday" Archerson ordered.

"yes sir" Garrett acknowledged and checked through his lists, sorting through power controls, vehicles, deployable reactors and generators, for at least an hour. The list went for quite a long while, as the armory was already pre stocked long ago. As he finally found a reactor small enough to use, he materialized it and then had an auto repair system bot come out as well and scan KOS-MOS.

(VERIFY. COMBAT ANDROID. TRITANIUM FRAME. CURRENT WEIGHT 94 LBS. STANDARD WEIGHT ESTIMATED AT 206 LBS. ARMOR IRREGULAR. STANDARD ARMOR CALCULATIONS UNSATISFACTORY FOR CURRENT COMBAT WITH COVENANT. WEAPON SYSTEMS OFFLINE. MOLECULATRONIC BRAIN OFFLINE. SCANNING… ERROR. ANDROID/CYBORG CURRENTLY IN CRITICAL CONDITION. ERROR. IMMEDIATE MEDICAL ATTENTION NEEDED. REPAIR NOT NEEDED)

Garrett and Archerson looked confused.

"What the hell? Medical? She's not alive…" Archerson tapped the deceitful controls on the repair bot as Garrett thought for a second.

_I have one… a small one… but it is there… a gift from her before she left…_

"override the repair and maintenance controls and engage reignition and attachment of reactor alignment" Garrett told him as Archerson nodded and typed in some commands. The bot complied slowly with a warning of the overall effects, medical jargon of "Side effects may include nausea, cancer, cellular rejection, cybernetic disruption, death…" until he disabled the warning and hit the yes button. The bot went to work sliding it's mechanical arms through the openings in the pelvis where KOS-MOS's "guts" were hanging out, and started to fuse wiring and parts to the reactor and dismantle the old reactor and pull it out. Archerson winced as he heard a small crack come from inside, and covered his forehead as the bot started drilling in one area.

"please tell me this thing isn't trying to improve on her… we just need her operational…" and his words were cut short as the bot tried to frantically pull it's arms out as nanites poured onto it, ripping apart the armor and disabling it, but not before the new reactor turned on. The bot fizzled and popped as it was torn apart and used as parts to repair KOS-MOS, mainly most of the lower abdomen and the right arm. The legs were never created, as the bot wasn't nearly large enough to give the right amount of materials.

Garrett and Archerson backed off and raised their rifles as the nanites rebuilt her upper body to a certain extent, and closed off the smaller holes in her lower half.

"whoa… ok… maybe not so old tech… but still… probably couldn't handle a covie toe to toe…" Archerson whistled. The nanites were useful, and could probably repair her against bullets and whatever she was made to fight, but against burning plasma, even a Spartan had difficulty keeping up against enough firepower.

Both watched as silence filled the air for a few minutes, the nanites stopping and receding, nothing else to consume for repairs. Garrett flipped through his sub armory and wrote the first repair bot off as destroyed, then finished and watched as the new right arm's fingers twitched. KOS-MOS's eyes slowly opened, beautiful crimson red orbs looking around as two pairs of eyes, one green, one blue oculars, watched her.

"hello, again" she said. Both men lowered their guns as Archerson raised an eyebrow.

"so, you met our renown supersoldier, now I want some information from you, I…" Archerson said before Garrett cut in.

"How are you. What's your status KOS-MOS" Garrett asked her.

KOS-MOS looked down at where she thought her legs would be, then saddened suddenly and looked away.

"operational at 64 percent, I am semi capable of moving on my own… I can crawl. Most weapons are offline. I am… ineffective at defense" she said, still looking away, flexing her left arm slightly.

"I meant how are you feeling, but that works too" Garrett said. KOS-MOS looked up at him suddenly, confused that he asked that, then smiled.

"I feel better now. Thank you for asking me, Spartan" she said softly.

Garrett nodded then looked around at what was left of the camp. For the most part it was destroyed, not that it mattered much.

"Think we should start moving at dawn before those things appear again?" Archerson asked Garrett, while KOS-MOS looked between them, slightly feeling out of the loop.

"I don't think moving will have much of an effect, but we need to find at least some sign of civilization, I seriously doubt we went back in time or to an Earth that doesn't have a humanity living on it sir. If New Mombassa is still 20 more miles up ahead, we might at least find a communications array, something to figure out what happened and where we are" Garrett responded.

"think UNSC is looking for us wherever we went?" Archerson asked as Garrett put his hand on KOS-MOS's shoulder as she looked confused, his armor registering durability of her repaired plating in certain areas and the slightly altered half visor over her ears through touch. He pointed up at his helmet and she nodded, understanding. Her upper body was mostly repaired, which was amazing considering the amount of materials in the repair bot to use, but from the waist down she was a cripple, and to Garrett's eyes in a saddening state. The poor thing had seen a lot of combat, but unfortunately, Garrett did not have the resources or the skills to fix her, and wasn't about to lose another repair bot when he may need it in the future.

"there's the repair bot's duranium plating… and it's structure… diamond mesh webbing… she even rebuilt the cpu control circuits and interlaced them for muscle control" Garrett said. KOS-MOS sighed slightly at hearing this, and Garrett looked down.

"you absorbed the repair bot we used to insert the reactor, that's why I'm checking to see if any abnormalities happened. Nanites can run frantic and in some cases berserk. It's the reason they became obsolete with microorganics technology and molecular bonding through a complete fuller sphere molecule augmentation. Sorry, but this stuff inside you is slow and can be given the wrong signals at times. It's 75 years old to us" Garrett told her.

"I see" KOS-MOS nodded, understanding.

"for the most part, what just happened shouldn't have happened, and technically, we should be shooting you for absorbing that military tech into yourself, but under current circumstances, I'm pretty sure the Cole Protocols can be damned. Just keep those things off us" Archerson told her.

"you have nothing to worry about. It will be alright. However, as the Spartan has just said, you do not need to move, someone is coming. Someone I have missed greatly… and she will be here soon…" KOS-MOS said, looking towards the sky. Garrett and Archerson looked up too, wondering what she was looking at, then looked back.

"regardless, we can't wait out here, we need to move at dawn to a new location, this area isn't defensible after that attack" Archerson cocked his rifle.

"orders?" Garrett asked.

"well, the sun should be coming up in a few hours, we'll brake camp when it jumps. Carry her and we'll head out towards where NM should be. Sound good?" Archerson asked.

"got it" Garrett nodded.

(3 hours later)

Garrett strapped KOS-MOS to his back armor plating as she put her arms around his neck, looking over his shoulder as he adjusted her to have a view forward, now that she was operational. He altered his rifle to a more comfortable position for her out of instinct, as he expected her to at least feel something of a large metal gun pressed against her side.

"alright, let's get moving" Archerson said and both started walking forward, the sun starting to come up.

For the most part, their trip was in silence, none of them speaking, KOS-MOS simply being carried and observing both men, Garrett checking terrain, temperature, weather, and all sensors in the event the worms showed up again, and Archerson lead the way forward.

"I know it's just around this… er… maybe it's the next corner…" the Captain said. They moved around the next corner of a mountainside, Archerson climbing over some boulders as Garrett leapt up to the top and gave him a hand, KOS-MOS putting her own hands out to assist him where possible.

"I could have sworn it was… but where…" Archerson looked behind him at both faces.

"Don't gimme that look! I know where I'm going!" both Garrett and KOS-MOS looked at each other over his shoulder then looked back at the ODST.

"I didn't say anything sir" Garrett responded.

"neither did I, mayhap we have turned a wrong corner however? Mombassa is 13 kilometers to our north Captain" KOS-MOS said.

"but… grrr… damned droid…" Archerson grumbled and walked on.

"actually it's 13.4 kilometers from my readings" Garrett said inside his helmet.

"I know, but I did not want to sound… out of place. I am not as… calculating as I once was" KOS-MOS said.

"once was?" Garrett asked.

"I wasn't always like this… but I have blossomed since Shion helped me find who I am… who I can be" KOS-MOS said.

"with your soul as you have said" Garrett said.

"yes…" KOS-MOS said.

Silence filled the air as they moved on, before KOS-MOS turned her head and looked at Garrett as he strode forward, taking one step for every 3 Archerson took.

"thank you for believing me. For trusting me. Everything will be made clear in the future, not through words, but through your own eyes. You will see. I know it" she said as he looked at her confused, then shook his head and suddenly dropped to a crouch.

"you feel that?" Archerson asked as Garrett nodded.

"no way, they couldn't be back… shit we're screwed… open terrain… watch our back…" the Captain whispered as nothing but a fallen tree was out alongside the mountain for them to hide behind. Garrett flipped around, rifle pulled and aiming around, checking motion sensors. A sink hole suddenly opened nearby and what looked like biped lizards with bug heads crawled out, firing what looked like molten fireballs out of one hand and a giant claw on the other, and the weird part was they were strafing and attempting to gain cover. All of them had the same ethereal skin, the bullets Archerson fired having no effect.

"they are gnosis. This will not work. My Hilbert generator isn't operational. We must run" KOS-MOS told Garrett as he fired a few rounds and rushed forward, slamming his shoulder into the side of the mountain and slipping his head out to fire a few rounds then slipping back in.

"Wrong" he said before his second shield flared an EMP wave, this one far stronger than the first and only taking half the energy down, as over 100 kilometers of area suddenly was hit by the Hilbert wave.

"you altered your shields…" she said in a curious tone.

"Captain, hold position, I'll flank right" Garrett yelled as he rushed across open terrain, molten fire hitting behind a good ten feet past. He became a blur, sliding and changing angle before strafe firing and pulling walking fire across a good portion of whatever was coming out of the sink hole, shredding most of the bug men. One lunged out through the air and attacked Garrett, and he suddenly struck out with the butt of his rifle, smashing the skull in.

Garrett swaps his rifle to his back, nudging her aside in the motion as she shifts to let him do so and pulls a plasma grenade, primed it, and throws it into the hole as more men pour out. The grenade detonates, closing the hole and killing more of the men as they fire at him before his shield absorbs the damage and he returns fire. The power registry on his shields ticked from 100 percent to 90 percent after 3 hits, not nearly enough to even make a note of as they recharged mid fight before another hit struck at 97 percent and brought it to 94. Whatever a gnosis was, it would not take this Spartan down. That still didn't override his basic training of cover and movement exceeds defense of shields. Shields were a last resort in case he couldn't dodge.

Garrett leapt, spraying the area of the last remaining as he came down, butting one of the soldiers in the face and uppercutting it, sending it flying and knocking over another. He turned and saw another soldier gnosis aim and fire at him, and he blurred forward with a burst of speed, turned and fired a spray of rounds, cleaving the gnosis's head in two before ejecting the clip and slamming another one home.

"Bring it!" Garrett yelled a battlecry as the last 3 soldiers suddenly had another hole open up under them, and they slipped back in.

"nice show of force there Corporal, remind me never to get into a boxing match with you…" the hell jumper behind him said as he walked up to the armored titan.

"they stopped again. Something doesn't feel right…" Garrett whispered again, his external speakers off so only he could hear himself.

"they do not act like they normally do… this is odd. They seem to have adapted…" KOS-MOS said.

"What do you mean?" Garrett asked.

"ya, what DO you mean? need to know info here, spill it" Archerson ordered.

"those gnosis were not normal. They were far more human in looks to what I have fought in the past, and far more tactically aware of their surroundings. They don't blindly move in and attack without worry for their own survival, they fight in groups it looks… and they are hounding us. They may be low on numbers" she told them.

"low on numbers? Not from what the Corporal told me, what with the ping of over 10,000 worms the last fight… the ground was practically moving to eat us…" Archerson grumbled.

"it seems we were not fully successful in our endeavor… some may have still rejected life… that is sad to hear…" KOS-MOS looked away.

"you can explain this to us later. Captain, we should get moving quickly, I don't wanna be caught out in the open like that again with little defense besides a mountainside. We need to close the distance between Mombassa and here fast" Garrett said.

"agreed. Hey… wait… I can see something… THERE!" Archerson pointed northward towards the distance. Towers could be seen, somewhat damaged, but definitely buildings.

"doesn't look like anything we'd make… pretty old fashioned if you ask me…" Archerson raised an eyebrow.

"Lost Jerusalem disappeared in 2010 when the Zohar was found and accidentally activated. I would not be surprised that some cities have stayed in their current state for quite sometime since that year" KOS-MOS said.

"Lost Jerusawho? And 2010? Um… that's a long long long time ago…" Archerson said.

"current date is 4762 for this world. Exactly what year is it for yours might I ask?" KOS-MOS asked.

"2653, but still, we have better tech than you guys do right now it looks… but I guess it was because of the Covenant War" Garrett said.

"the Covenant War?" KOS-MOS asked.

"ya. 2552, first contact was made with extra terrestrials. We lost contact with the outer colony of Harvest. We sent a scout ship to investigate, no response back. We sent a task force to retrieve the scout ship. 2 weeks later one badly damaged destroyer limped home telling us we were at war, and that they wanted nothing more than our destruction. All humanity knows that… or at least on our side they did" Garrett told her.

"the Covenant, are they similar to the Gnosis?" she asked.

"hah! Hell no girl! These bastards aren't on our plane of existence, the Covenant are but far outclassed us in tech when we fought them, there was a big difference. We were outnumbered and outgunned, we lost almost every colony except for fringe worlds. We almost didn't stand a chance if it wasn't for the Spartan program… er…" Archerson said before cutting himself off.

"and you are a Spartan yes?" KOS-MOS asked.

"he's… er… um…" and Archerson shut up after that, realizing all information was classified, even he only knew certain details because Garrett was in his squad.

KOS-MOS expected Archerson to continue, but he didn't, and Garrett went silent as well.

"you were about to say something?" KOS-MOS asked, attempting to continue the conversation, not really gaining the idea to stop asking.

"that's classified, don't ask again" Archerson said over his shoulder, his face going solemn and cold. KOS-MOS wasn't expecting such a sharp order to be said, and fell silent as well.

All three continued towards Mombassa, and hopefully towards some form of civilization with someone living besides Gnosis.


	4. Night of the Walking Gnosis

Garrett tried to materialize a warthog from his sub armory as they moved towards Mombassa, however his armor's phase controls for that part of the armory were still running a long diagnostic, something he didn't realize would happen if his OS was restarted when he first landed. Until it was fully operational, they were on their feet to move for a while.

Archerson walked through a large gate, and stared down what looked like a highway ramp with buildings every which way.

"yup, some things never change…" Archerson sighed as he walked on, Garrett following as KOS-MOS looked around. They moved from what looked like the upper city, with what looked like motels and restaurants, until after a few hours they entered the slums area, below the highways, looking somewhat to sprawls. Damaged cars lined the streets, bicycles in certain places, almost all of them stripped of paint.

"KOS-MOS, how big did Mombassa get in 2010 by chance would you know? And was there any military presence of any kind by any government that might have a base command centered somewhere?" Archerson asked.

"I unfortunately do not. I am sorry" KOS-MOS said.

"hmm… well, let's see, if I was a strategic architect… where would I put a launch base…" Archerson mumbled to himself.

"sir, I have a grid location, underground, other side of the city" Garrett said as he looked at the ground, his oculars changing to red then back to blue.

"hmmm, other side of the city? Would take us most of the day to navigate there… it's already the afternoon for crying out loud… let's see how far we get then we'll set camp where we stop" Archerson said.

"understood" Garrett responded as they walked down the street, checking buildings through windows and doors for any signs of life. The day wore on, and for the most part, everything was uneventful.

Garrett and Archerson set up camp as dusk came upon them. KOS-MOS was placed back first against a wall of a building as both men posted their tents and lit some wood and scrap in a trashcan for light. Just as they finished making the camp, and night came up, Archerson started cooking and Garrett stood guard nearby.

"permission to scout the area sir" Garrett asked.

"wha? Alone? Er… well, ya, report back in 1 hour, don't get cocky, you see hostiles you retreat back got it?" Archerson said.

"understood. 1 hour" Garrett replied, and with that he stealthed with his active camouflage and photo cells and disappeared.

"that always creeps me out when he does that…" Archerson sighed and continued to cook as KOS-MOS sat there, watching the fire.

"do you eat?" Archerson asked.

"my condensor in the past allowed me to consume food and burn it away, however, I never did care to taste flavors. However, I believe now… what is it you are cooking? It appears to be curry" KOS-MOS asked.

"hehe, my favorite, learned it back in boot when we hated the grub they handed us for MREs. In all honesty it's a form of chicken vindaluu, problem is no popadoms, just the texas toast here. Try it if you want" he said before lifting a spoon with a bit of the food to her mouth as she tasted it.

"It requires more seasoning. There is little spice in this dinner to be considered a vindaluu" KOS-MOS said. Archerson barked a laugh in approval.

"I haven't finished it yet, but ya, your right. Problem was if we made it too hot in the past, it'd give us boots the shits for calisthenics the next morning. Had to keep it at a maximum allowed to keep our bodies from not blowing it out of our asses" Archerson grinned ear to ear. KOS-MOS did not seem very amused, and did her best to hide the slight confusion and disgust of the thought he placed.

As Archerson finished the cooking, and poured some orange powder into his canteen and shook it, a rumble was felt in the ground.

"oh shit… no way… not now…" Archerson whispered and grabbed his rifle, bracing himself against a concrete guardrail as KOS-MOS lifted herself up into the crook of a doorway overhang, trying to hide in the shadows. Archerson looked around carefully, controlling his breath as best he could, the fire the only thing making noise besides his oh so loud heartbeat.

Archerson squinted his eyes as he saw movement around the corner of the building at the end of the street, and cursed as it definitely didn't look 7 feet tall. It was humanoid, but he definitely saw the razor claws on both hands, and they looked like they were shambling forward.

"this is definitely not good…" the ODST said as he looked down the other side of the street and saw more of the things turning the corner. He was cut off. They were moving slow, but he definitely believed they were gnosis.

"Corporal.. Do you read me… we have a problem at camp… get your ass back here NOW…" he whispered into his com rig in his ear. All he got was static.

"shit this is not good…" Archerson whispered.

"gnosis?" the Captain asked behind him towards KOS-MOS.

"yes, and many of them."

"shit…" Archerson swore and held his fire as the shambling horrors slowly moved down the street towards him. They were definitely coming for them, not just moving, and Archerson pulled back to the doorway KOS-MOS was in, nearly stepping on one of her hands.

"shit sorry. We might have to make a run for it" he said as he attached a small amount of plastic explosive to the door and popped the handle. He tried his best to lift KOS-MOS onto his back, and lucky for him, she didn't weigh nearly as much as what he thought she would. He strapped her on as she put her arms around his neck, and he aimed around behind him quickly before moving in, running up the stairs to the top and kicking the rooftop door in.

Archerson looked down the stairs to see the shambling horrors not come in.

"what the… shouldn't they be here by now?" Archerson asked.

"it's strange… they are acting completely irregular. I do not understand them now" KOS-MOS said.

Archerson slowly moved to the side of the rooftop and looked down. The shambling creatures were keeping away from the trashcan, which happened to be near the front door. They wouldn't dare go near the light. One of them tripped on some trash and fell forwards, face first, towards where the light was, and it howled in pain and started to burn before recoiling.

"they're… afraid of light?" Archerson asked before hearing some shuffling. He quickly flipped around, looking to his back and shining his flashlight. A shambling horror screamed as it was hit by the flashlight, the being coming around the side of the rootop doorway before recoiling back around the side. More started to move past it, and he shined his flashlight on all of them before a large explosion was heard below, and the dim light of the trashcan below went dark.

"Shit, this is definitely not good…" Archerson swore and was truly afraid as he saw the faces of these things with he flash. They were hideous, still ethereal, but looked similar to rotting corpses, undead almost.

Archerson backed towards the side and leapt to the next rooftop, the shambling horrors shifting on the other side, not making a sound besides their movement.

The Helljumper ran along the top of the rooftop to the other side before being cut off by another group of the horrors, and he fired half his clip into one of them, not having much of an effect aside from annoy it, but the flashlight brightened and burned away it's skin, making it recoil and howl.

KOS-MOS reached towards Archerson's hip and pulled his pistol, which made him jump a bit before he realized what was happening, and she aimed at one while he aimed at another.

"please say you can do that Hilbert thing now Kos…" the marine asked hopefully.

"I… give me a minute…" she said, closing her eyes.

"we don't have a minute… in a minute we'll be ripped to pieces…" Archerson grumbled before jumping up to the lip of the rooftop, balancing with the android's extra weight on his back. His flashlight was dimming, the batteries starting to run low.

"damn…" he whispered as he hit the thing, the light brightening for a second before dimming again. The shambling horrors moved closer to him, wanting to attack.

KOS-MOS's visor around her ears flipped and moved, trying to gain a position that would operate how she wanted it, and her hair shifted to accommodate the movement.

"stand by" she said as the twin side gems on each side of her ears glowed and let off an electric pulse wave around her, shifting the gnosis into the material plane.

"now we're talking!" Archerson yelled and opened up on the nearest target, which was almost upon him with his flashlight dying. He sprayed wildly before moving to the corner of the building, jumping off the lip and running past two of the horrors, dodging their attacks before KOS-MOS put two head shots in. her pistol rang empty as she ejected the clip, reaching for another at his belt as he reloaded, before the ground under him opened up in a circle of armor piercing rounds, dropping him to the floor below him. He fell on his face before scrambling to get up, KOS-MOS still aiming around before coming face to face with a blue goggled helmet.

"glad you showed up, the party is just starting, pour it on boy!" Archerson yelled as the horrors fell through the hole he made before having three weapons fire a lead shield towards them.

"fall back, I've opened up the building below, there's a back door to it, move and head down 5th Jaruba Street. There aren't any hostiles there sir. I'll hold them here" Garrett responded as he smashed his fist through a horror's head.

"wha? Are you kidding me? What about you?" Archerson yelled as Garrett took on two at the same time in close quarters, his shotgun ringing twice before he slipped more shells in.

"I'll regroup with you afterwards, keep them focused on me while you escape. We do not have the manpower to be flanked here. We're too open. Down Jaruba Street is the main highway. Go down it towards the base entrance. You'll travel 8 miles before reaching it. I'll meet up with you there" Garrett said and pushed Archerson out the door to the room he was in before slamming it closed.

"shit! Spartan! Open this door!… damn… you better survive this damn it! God damn you better meet us there!" Archerson yelled before he turned around, KOS-MOS clinging to him as he ran down the stairs, firing at straggling horrors before kicking out the back door and running out of it. The horrors seemed to be churning into the other building, swarming towards where the Spartan was fighting. There were so many moving down the street in the front he couldn't see the camp. Down the side passage he saw Jaruba street's sign, and almost no horrors nearby. He ran down the street only to hear a smash and one of the horrors get thrown through a wall up above, flying into the chain fence nearby and splattering. The Spartan was still in the game.

"He will be alright" KOS-MOS said softly as Archerson kept running, trying to console him.

"of course he will. He's a Spartan. He's handled worse than this, though he's never really fought against these shitheads before. He'll keep his word. I know it" Archerson said, agreeing with KOS-MOS, and trying to convince himself that it was true.

Archerson grabbed onto the street sign pole and swung himself around it, barreling straight down Jaruba and up the ramp to the main highway. He just kept running, hearing the echo of bullets flying and combat behind him as he ran.

As he sprinted forward, the Captain looked up to see a small shooting star move through the night, over the horizon of the mountains.

"she… she's here… finally…" KOS-MOS whispered as Archerson stopped for a second before looking behind him. He could see in the faint distance the horrors slowly moving down the highway towards him, but they were so far away he didn't care. He looked forward to see in the distance a small bunker size building, and he ran towards it, not hearing KOS-MOS speaking as the star started to get larger, moving towards them.

The marine after an hour of pacing himself, coughing and tired and weary as he moved towards the door of the bunker, he didn't realize KOS-MOS was still strapped to his back, and frankly didn't care, as he flattened himself against the wall and caught his breath, the concrete wall ignored for a softer fleshy cushion behind him. KOS-MOS didn't say a word, trying best to let him rest enough to continue inside and away from the gnosis.

Archerson stood up, wobbled a bit as he was trying to balance KOS-MOS on his back, and then slowly went down the stairs into the front of the bunker, checking around with his rifle to make sure he wasn't ambushed. As he looked around, he saw an outline of a door with a passcode pad on the side, inoperable.

"shit… god damn, we don't have any power!" Archerson whined as he looked back and up the stairs. He saw through the moonlight shadows slowly coming down the steps, and he readied his rifle and primed a grenade, throwing it up the steps.

"holy!" was yelled up above before the grenade exploded, followed by a spray of rifle fire as the figures jumped to both sides.

"who the hell is that?! Damn, they might have KOS-MOS down there…" the captain heard a male voice come from upstairs, and it didn't seem to be hostile.

"cease fire, please Captain. She must be here" KOS-MOS said as she pushed his rifle down in his hands, he not being nearly strong enough to resist her overpowering push.

"KOS-MOS? Is that you?" he heard the voice again.

"yes, Allen, I am here, don't fire" KOS-MOS said as Archerson heard footsteps.

Allen walked downstairs, putting down his crossbow as he seemed to be wearing wrinkled combat fatigues Archerson had never seen, and he clearly didn't know how to wear. This man was definitely not a soldier. On the other side of him was a woman, blonde haired with a beret on her head, holding a pistol in her hands.

"wow, hey KOS-MOS, Shion will be really happy to see you again. Glad your distress beacon was on, we could track ya" the woman said as she sighed.

Archerson was still wary of both of them, and still had his rifle primed.

"she is not here it seems. I thought she would be with you" KOS-MOS said softly.

"she's on the other side of the city with the little Masta, they heard gunfire and wanted to investigate. I wonder why you can't pick her up on your sensors, they might be damaged though. We gotta get you out of here, er… who is this guy by chance?" Archerson heard the blonde say.

"Mary, this is Captain Archerson, he and his friend have been carrying me and repaired me enough to function until now" KOS-MOS responded as Archerson sort of nodded towards both of them.

"a soldja huh? Wait a minute, repaired?" Mary asked. Archerson looked back towards KOS-MOS and rotated somewhat, showing her legs were ripped off.

"oh god… KOS-MOS…" Allen whispered as Mary covered her mouth. Both regained their composure as they looked up at both the captain and her.

"We… we gotta get you back to the ship. Shion, can you hear us?" Allen said into an earpiece.

"yes Allen, we can hear you, have you gotten KOS-MOS back yet?" Shion asked in a crackling com channel.

"ya, we found her… um… you're gonna want to get back to the ship soon… she needs some repairs… but… but she's ok honey. She's ok. And she wants to see you" Allen almost whispered. Shion sounded as if she was choking back tears.

"I'll… I'll be right there. Jr! we have to get out of here! Whoever was here isn't here anymore! Let's go!" Shion yelled out behind her as gunfire was heard. A small "you got it!" was heard in the background.

"We'll be there soon. KOS-MOS, I'll see you there!" Shion yelled out for the android to hear. The com line turned off and Allen looked up at the red eyes looking towards him, smiling, and if she could, he was sure she would be crying right now.

"alright, let's just get to the ship now and-" Allen said before the back door creaked open, the passcode pad popping off the wall, rust breaking the sides. The door angled slightly, still in place, but no longer locked.

"uh… huh?" Archerson looked at it, rifle raised as Allen raised his crossbow, yelping at the same time.

"KOS, anything?" Archerson whispered.

"nothing… no gnosis detected" she whispered back.

"lets get back to the ship before anything else weird happens" Allen whispered as he started to go back up the stairs.

"wait…" KOS-MOS said before her mouth almost fell open, she blinked a bit looking around, looking somewhat surprised, and a bit awkward.

"KOS-MOS? Are you ok?" Mary asked.

"this… she's… we must go inside" KOS-MOS almost breathed out, almost pushing Archerson to go towards the door.

"um, why" the captain asked.

"please. Listen to me. We must" she said softly.

"we gotta meet Shion at the ship, we can explore later once your repaired KOS-MOS. Don't worry about it" Allen said as he tugged on Archerson's shoulder. The marine pulled away from his pull violently and glared at Allen, annoyed that he did that and warning him to back off.

"please, we need to get her… Shion… she will want to see her as well…" KOS-MOS said.

"see… who?" Allen asked before shuffling was heard up above.

"We can talk about this later! Move!" Archerson wheeled around and with a few leaps up the stairs and some sprays of bullets later, was at the top, Mary jumping out of his way as he fired.

"which way to the dz?!" Archerson yelled back down.

"uh, wha, er, left! Go that way! Wait, what's a dz?!" Allen yelled up and scrambled to reach the top, shambling horrors moving towards the captain as Mary fired at a few.

"go go go!" Archerson yelled as he fired and ran, blind firing behind him as Mary fought to keep up with his movement, Allen slipping and flipping around and trying to run with them.

The small group ran towards a small light that was getting bigger off of the highway, and as they got closer, Archerson saw that it was a fairly large ship that had landed.

"whoa…" he mumbled out as the other two ran by him and told him to keep running. He broke into a sprint again, but a rumble was felt through the ground.

"what the.." Allen said before a worm leapt out of the ground and snarled.

"what is that?!" Allen yelled as KOS-MOS's half visor turned on, the Hilbert effect enveloping the area. Allen shot an explosive tipped bolt at the worm as they ran, and it howled a bit as the round punctured into it's side, before it tried to lunge… at Archerson.

"Son of a!" he yelled and dove, the weight of KOS-MOS barreling over him and throwing his roll off as he flipped and flopped and got up slowly, bruised. The worm attacked again, but before it could take a bite out of Archerson, KOS-MOS threw her left arm up and accepted the blow, the worm biting into her to protect Archerson.

"no! shit! Bastard! Raaaaahhh!" he yelled as he emptied his clip into the worm as her arm crunched slightly and wires and circuits sputtered inside. Before he could get away though, the bolt exploded nearby, throwing him backwards and slamming KOS-MOS into the ground under him, making him look like an overturned turtle.

"you stupid little shit…" Archerson groaned and fought to get up as Allen realized his mistake. All three ran up the ramp of the ship as it closed, the ship lifting off the ground as more of the worms erupted from the ground.

"well, glad to be out of that mess…" Allen said before Archerson clocked him in the mouth and sent him flying to the ground.

"next time you shoot something like that with me nearby, I will personally feed your ass to those fuckers!" Archerson growled. Allen rubbed his jaw, wincing and looking at the muscled old man.

"I, uh, sorry, I didn't think it would-"

"you didn't think it would attack? Unknown hostile pops out of nowhere and you think it's not going to attack the slower moving target? Gee, nice one Rtard" Archerson growled again.

"um…" Allen looked away sheepishly.

"Leave my daddy alone!" a small boy's voice was heard, and a small leg kicked the marine in the shin, the armor absorbing it for the most part with a clang, as the boy ran to hug his father.

"wha, who, huh" and the ODST shut up in thought.

"it's ok Kevin, don't worry, daddy's ok" Allen said as he got up, still looking toward Archerson.

"where's mommy? Isn't she with you?" the little boy asked.

"what, wait, isn't she already here?" Allen asked, looking around.

"no, she's still out there" Kevin pointed.

"damn it, we gotta go back out there!" Allen moved forward but was stopped by Shelley as she held him back.

"we've already lifted off, Shion warned us they would get back to us at another location, right now those worms and beasts are following us for some reason, and with us in the air, it would be difficult for them to attack. Since they cannot attack us, we can move them away from Shion, then fly back and pick her up. This is the best way" Shelley said calmly.

"but… I.. alright.." Allen sighed.

"someone mind telling me a bit of need to know please?" Archerson said slightly tapping his boot.

"who is this?" Shelley asked.

"Some guy KOS-MOS teamed up with. Said something about another guy, but he wasn't around. Said they protected her until we got here. Her… her legs… she's…" Mary said before looking away.

"alright, KOS-MOS, we were already prepared for this before hand, lets get her into her pod, the professor has already gotten the equipment set up. Allen, please assist him" Shelley said before motioning towards a door on an upper tier. Archerson moved towards the door as Shelley nodded. The door slid open and an old man and younger man were arguing.

"I told you professor! Shion will not let you make her body transform this time! She wants her just the way she was when we rebuilt her!" the younger man said.

"Scott! I don't care what she asked for! This is for KOS-MOS's own good! She'll never need to worry about another thing again with this new body spec! I'm telling you I-" the older man said.

"Shion wouldn't really like it if you didn't do what she said for KOS-MOS professor. You know how she'd get if you went against that" Allen said.

"now assistant number 2! I… oh ya…" the professor said before thinking worriedly.

"well then… put her in the carriage now" the professor said as Archerson just stood there.

"what? Me? Oh, um…" he walked to the pod and sat on the edge of it, KOS-MOS helping undo the straps holding her to him and lowered herself into the open case.

"now assistant number 5! Get away before the pod closes damn it!" the professor said as he shooed Archerson away.

"hey old man! Knock it off!" he said as he moved back and the pod closed.

"is that auntie Ka…ka.. Cosmos?" Kevin said as he hid behind Allen's leg.

"yes she is son. She is" Allen said and scratched his head, KOS-MOS looking in their direction as the pod slowly closed.

"what's wrong with her? Will she be ok?" Kevin asked.

"she's… hurt. But she'll be ok. She just needs to sleep a little bit until mommy gets back. Don't worry. You'll be able to talk to her soon. But wait…" Allen said as he looked at his watch.

"it's time for bed little one, come along" Shelley said and pulled him away from Allen as he watched.

"but… I'm not tired" Kevin said as he put his hand in Shelley's.

"I'll read you a book then, how is that?" Shelley said as she led him out of the room.

"ok, read me the one with the-" and Kevin's voice died off as they left the room.

"dear god what a mess…" Allen said and put his hand to his forehead.

"ok, now I want a few answers. Who are you guys" Archerson asked.

"I believe we both have some questions to ask. You gotta give as well as you receive now pal" Mary said with her arms crossed, her gun in her holster.

"as I figured… fine fine fine, shoot" Archerson said as he sighed.

Both sides began to talk, question for question about the situation as time ticked away, the gnosis stirring around below the ship as it hovered across the open land and city.


	5. Painful Reunion

Shion and Jr. ran as they blind fired behind them, the horrors following them down the backstreets and up into alleyways as they climbed over a fence, Shion yelping as she skinned her knee against the side of the fence as she climbed before continuing running, not daring stop to rest.

"where did Allen say to meet? The coms jammed the instant the ship lifted off" Jr. said as they ran and slid around a corner.

"I don't know, but they had just gotten out of a small bunker near an abandoned base nearby, I think it's a mile down that road. Should we head there?" Shion asked.

"why not, it's better than fighting these things. They just keep coming!" Jr. said as he fired another round before reloading a clip.

"they don't act like what we've seen before though, it's strange, it's like something is changing their actions, maybe… I don't know, oh… if KOS-MOS was here she'd know… I hope Allen got her out of there…" Shion said.

"don't worry, I'm sure she's fine now, but we won't be unless we get somewhere safe soon. The bunker right?" Jr. said as he skidded and ran down the next street, only 3 horrors wandering the area.

"yes. Let's go" Shion yelled as she charged forward, bashing away one of the horrors before running past, not even finishing it off. She didn't have the strength to continue the fight, not anymore.

Shion and Jr. stopped in front of the bunker stairway, wary of what was down below. Suddenly, Shion felt nauseous, and vomited on the ground, Jr. helping her up.

"hey, your exhausted, we'll rest here" Jr. said as he turned her around, pulling his lucky hankerchief from his pocket and letting her wipe her mouth.

"it's… it's alright… I'm fine… just… ouch…" she winced as her knee ached from the skin and blood crusting.

"here, I have a few of these from when Gaignun and I would spar a bit. They aren't much but, well, hehe, they might work. They're old fashioned though" Jr. smiled and pulled out a bandaid from his pocket, and peeled the tape and placed it on her knee.

"why not just carry the nanite pads? There isn't any scarring with those" Shion asked.

"those are a bit.. Well… unwise to use when you've been sitting on them on a hot seat in a car after summer time on Miltia… trust me… bad idea…" he winced and chuckled at an old memory.

"ah… so heat has an effect… I see… well, it does help… thanks Jr." Shion smiled and got up slowly.

"hehe, don't worry about a thing, we'll make it through this!" Jr. took a stance with his hands on his hips and then thumbed his nose. Both giggled slightly before Shion gasped, and glowed ever so slightly.

"Shion what's wrong?" Jr. asked, putting his hand out if she needed it.

"I'm… fine… just… who… who is… she's calling me…" Shion said in a barely audible whisper.

"who?" Jr. asked.

"I… I don't know… but… her voice… it's so… soothing…" Shion said, drawn down the steps and towards the tilted door. She tipped it a bit left almost in a trance, and slid it slowly, the grinding metal creaked and screeched.

"wait, shouldn't we regroup with everyone before exploring? There could be more gnosis down there!" Jr. said as Shion paid no heed to him, heading into the place as he looked back, not seeing anything follow them.

"Shion!" he yelled one more time before following her in, wary of the inside, turning his flashlight on as he followed her.

Shion walked smoothly down another flight of steps before going down a long hallway, eventually entering a huge dome with 5 doors at 3 o clock 5 o clock 7 o clock 9 o clock and 11 o clock points around the diameter, with the door they just came out of almost 3 feet to the left of the first one.

"Where, where are we?" Jr. asked. Something stirred slightly nearby. Jr whipped around and aimed his guns before he heard something turn on far below him, but he didn't know what. Shion stood there oblivious, still in a trance. Small blue lights winked on around the edge of the dome before a large overhead light at the top popped on, flooding the area and casting darkness away.

"I think we just tripped an activation point for a generator… I'm surprised it's still working right now…" Jr. whispered before he saw a large scanning laser move across the ground towards them.

"uh, shion, we might wanna move… I have a bad feeling about this…" Jr. said pushing Shion but she didn't budge.

The scanning laser pasted over them before a loud female voice was heard saying "weapons detected. Please discard all weapons before proceeding" all around him.

"uh, Shion, I think it's time to go" Jr. pushed harder, grunting as he tried to move her, as she resisted the force he was putting into making her move. Twin orbs slowly came up from two doors on both sides in the ground, the plating sliding away to allow them out.

"please discard all weapons or you will be considered hostile" he heard again as the orbs glowed and charged.

"they REALLY don't like guns…" Jr. said as he saw them crackled with energy. He flipped his pistols in a no threatening manner and placed them slowly on the ground as two more orbs lifted out of the ground in front of them and behind them.

"thank you, please proceed" the voice was heard again as the 5th door opened in the dome.

Shion moved towards it, Jr. following but whimpering slightly as he left his pistols on the ground.

"I'm coming back for you babies, don't worry!" he yelled as they went through the door.

On the other side, was a huge maze of hallways and rooms, pods of odd shapes and sizes, and energy moving about. The entire place was well lit, but also fully metal, and small glyphs floated that seemed unrecognizable to Jr.

Shion walked through the maze of rooms, seeing odd football shaped machines float through the air and scan things before looking at him with a single red or blue eye, before moving on to another piece of odd equipment and scanning that. They moved in groups of three, always altering their patrol group pattern with the one taking up the rear placed in front, and seemed quite intelligent.

Shion walked to the last room and suddenly came out of her trance.

"What, where, where are we? How did we get here?" Shion asked blinking and looking around. Both heard humming as an odd basketball shaped machine floated down from somewhere high above and sat right in front of both of them.

"ah, good evening to you good lady. I am 942 Altered Glory. I am the monitor of this installation, The Ark Pre Entrance Control Center. How are you this evening hmm?" the orb said, glowing and tilting slightly, good natured.

"who, how did I get here?" Shion asked.

"why, from a subconscious relay point emplaced in your brain. It was relayed through someone else however, so it just goes to show that you are not what was expected. A pity, it seemed they truly died out over the centuries, or their blood has ceased to create a catalytic effect to allow control over the machinery in the area. Too bad, their sacrifice was most honorable" the monitor explained.

"who put the relay point in me?" Shion asked.

"why, the woman laying in the statis chamber we let her borrow. It was in a good interest, however I do believe that her good will was flawed due to all connections to reclaimers was severed more than 4000 years ago, and she could obviously not have lived that long from said date. Also, her DNA does not exhibit the effects of a reclaimer. However, she is most remarkable in her capabilities. Would you like to see her?" the monitor asked.

"yes… yes I would… and I want to ask some questions from you after. Please?" Shion said.

"but of course! I would be most happy to answer any questions you would have of me. Let me open this door for you, and then later there can be an exchange of information between us. I would be most interested in the loss of signal control and sensor links outside of this base command so long ago" the monitor said as it sent a relay signal to the door, unlocking it and letting it slid open.

"please, she is waiting for you" Glory said as he moved out of the way, as Shion walked into a small room barely lit. sitting in the middle of the room was but a single angled pod, with gas flowing around inside of it, and a neon blue tinge inside. Shion walked slowly up to it, and Jr. tried to stop her.

"don't you think this is a little odd Shion? What if it's a trap? Something could jump out and attack us at any second!" he said to her.

"no… we're… we're fine… I can feel it…" She said as she walked a few more feet, stopping in front of the pod. Inside was a woman, barely visible, in what seemed to be a robe. Her hair was black and long, but Shion could barely see her face. As she peered closer, the pod door unlatched and opened slowly, making Shion jump back slightly. The gas flowed out somewhat, and a hand rose slowly and grabbed onto the side. A foot slowly stepped out, and there, before Shion, stood a woman she had seen so long ago, and she gasped.

"Ma… Ma… Mary?" Shion asked. Standing before her, was the same body, the same hair, the same blue eyes.

"I cannot go by that name anymore Shion, just as you cannot go by your old name. it simply does not fit. I believe… Mirie. Yes, Mirie should work. I think I like the sound to it" she smiled softly, staring at Shion.

"but… but how?" Shion asked.

"I was… placed here, inside, protected, both one side of me and the other now complete after we had finished. But, I lost control over the Gnosis over time, lost my path… and ended up inside this to save me, until you came" Mirie said.

"you mean… your… no longer inside… KOS-MOS?" Shion asked.

"KOS-MOS is herself, we are neither the same to each other now, though… we are of similar life and birth. I gave her a piece of me before I left, a gift. It was small, it could have destroyed me, but I did it. She is who she is now, as I am who I am" Mirie smiled at the thought.

"She is in a sense my sister…" Mirie put her hand to her chest and closed her eyes.

"KOS-MOS… your sister?" Shion asked.

"yes… can you not feel it? She is… alive. And yet not. But soon… soon I will have another gift for her… for all the effort she has put to help everyone… she deserves this as well…" Mirie said, her hand lightly glowing.

"I… see" Shion said.

"you do?" Jr. asked.

"Yes. I think… I do" Shion said as she walked a bit forward, standing in front of Mirie.

"you've grown older, Shion" Mirie said, smiling, putting up her hand and softly caressing Shion's hair.

"only a few years… I've had a child, and Allen and I are married now" Shion giggled slightly, and showed her finger with the ring. Mirie smiled even more, then looked up again.

"it is good to see you again, Shion. As we had both said, her, and I, we would see you soon" Mirie said and hugged Shion close, Shion's eyes watering as she hugged back.

"I missed you. I missed KOS-MOS" Shion whispered.

"I missed you too. She missed you as well. I could tell" Mirie whispered back. Both slowly broke away, Mirie wiping a few tears from Shion's eyes softly.

"well… now I believe we should finish what we are here for. You are here. I am here. We can stop what is to come. And yet, we are so few. We cannot do what we need without help" Mirie said.

"the ship is flying around outside, they should get back to us soon assuming we can get past those horror gnosis" Jr. said.

"We will need everyone, to overcome their fear and help. Only then, will we be safe, and continue humanity towards the endless future" Mirie said, putting her hand out palm down. Shion put her hand on top of hers and smiled.

"we will succeed" Shion said.

"of course we will. I know it" Mirie breathed out.

An eruption was heard outside, faint, but definitely nearby.

"what was that?" Jr. said as he looked about.

"oh dear, the main control system fail safe has been destroyed. It appears these gnosis phenomenon have disabled the replication systems needed to recreate the sentinel defense force. Unfortunately, the sentinel reserves will be insufficient in repelling these attackers" the monitor said nearby.

"oh no, we're trapped!" Shion said as she turned around.

"trapped? Oh heavens no! I will simply transport all of you to the secondary quarters and underground recycling plant. From there you will be able to leave on your own. I must attend to the repair controls and at least slow these gnosis beings down. Farewell, and safe travels to all of you. I will check in after I have accessed the current situation" the monitor said before a golden glow erupted around everyone and they teleported to another place deep in the complex.

"wait! Wha…" Jr tried to say as they finished materializing down below.

"aw, I can't even get a word out before things happen these days…" Jr. said and kicked a pebble on the ground.

"we should get going. Lets get out of here" Shion said as Mirie nodded, everyone running down a crooked hallway. They ran down a ramp and went right, only to find a collapsed hallway, and to the left was an armory. Further ahead was another hallway and beyond that a large room.

"let's go there. That might lead around the collapse" Jr. said.

"right" Shion acknowledged and everyone ran forward, nearly barreling into gnosis materializing in the room.

"damn!" Jr. yelled as he looked around for a gun. Shion fired towards them as Mirie stood back, closing her eyes and concentrating.

"we can't hurt them! No Hilbert!" Jr. yelled as Shion tried to stop the gnosis horrors.

"I have an answer to that…" Mirie said behind them as her entire body glowed, and suddenly a chain lightning attack rushed from her feet down the ground and struck at the immaterialized gnosis, making them howl in pain before disintegrating.

"whoa… how…" Jr. asked.

"as long as they are not of salt will I be able to do that, however the Hilbert effect will negate that. If that ever happens, I will have to resort to simply healing with my will. It, however, takes a great deal of concentration for me, and… well…" Mirie said before her left leg slid slightly and she nearly fell.

"Mirie!" Shion ran towards her and held her.

"it is alright, it simply took a lot out of me… I fine… really…" she smiled weakly.

"your not used to this yet are you? All this time… waiting…" Shion said holding her up.

"I will be fine once I am allowed to rest. We must continue moving. Hurry" Mirie said as Shion held her up. The three of them moved into the next room, covered in machinery and small stairs going over them, with huge vats of water and other liquids all around.

"a breeding chamber or something? What the hell?" Jr. asked before more gnosis appeared.

"I…can't do what I did again… but… maybe…" Mirie said as she closed her eyes again, this time the gnosis materialized.

"hurry… strike…" Mirie said wincing as Shion nodded and put her down carefully before pulling a small pistol from her MWS and handing it to Jr.

"What the… you kept a spare hidden? How? It didn't detect it?" Jr. asked.

"the MWS was inside my compactor you silly, don't you remember? I didn't have it out" she said as she started to fire. Jr. nodded and opened fire, shooting down a few gnosis before emptying his clip and asking for another. As Shion was reaching for another, one of the horrors came up from her side.

"Shion!" Mirie yelled and jumped up with all her strength, pushing Shion down as the gnosis struck. A claw pierced clean through Mirie's chest, puncturing her right lung, before she fell forward.

"DAMN IT!" Jr. yelled as he fired and hit the thing square in the eyes, as it fell backwards before it could attack again. Shion pulled back and rolled Mirie over. She coughed slightly, still alive, but hurt badly.

"oh god… please no…" Shion said.

"it is alright… Shion… are you ok?" Mirie asked as she coughed again, it difficult to breath for her.

"I'm fine… oh god the blood… please no…" She said almost crying.

"Shion! They're getting larger! We gotta go! We can't stay here!" Jr. yelled as he fired some more rounds, mostly chest shots with two hits knocking two down from the feet.

"it doesn't hurt. Really… I wish… I could see this through… but, I know you'll do it, Shion…" Mirie said, coughing again with blood coming out of her mouth.

"please… don't… I need you…we'll get you out of here. I'll carry you!" Shion said, tears falling.

"KOS-MOS… will be there… for you… good luck… you turned out so good… I am… proud… of you" Mirie said, her hand caressed Shion's cheek.

"I am so tired… I think… I'll take a small nap… you can… wake me up… later… see you… soon…" Mirie said as she struggled to keep her eyes open before a gnosis was about to strike Shion in the back.

Suddenly, a loud CRACK! Thundered through the air as a fin stabilized discarding Sabot round pierced through the air from a sniper rifle. A small hole was seen in the wall with smoke flowing from it before the panels smashed away. Jr. was startled as a huge form burst from the wall and crashed into 3 gnosis, bashing them away before it's form was more visible. It stood seven feet tall, with black armor and eerie blue glowing goggles, and definitely seemed incredibly hostile to the gnosis, firing 3 more rounds before swapping to a more standard rifle and taking large steps towards him.

Jr. looked up as the human shaped soldier walked right by him and fired, a 60 round burst as it cleaved 4 more gnosis to pieces with shredder rounds that got behind him and were going to finish off Mirie and Shion. Shion looked up at the black form standing over her as the room fell silent for a few more seconds, the gnosis attempting to materialize through the ground. "who… who are you?" Shion asked, choking back tears.

The form didn't say anything, but Mirie looked up with bleary eyes.

"you… it said… something… about you… a…" Mirie breathed out, trying to stay awake as long as she could. Sweat made her hair cake to her skin, and the huge soldier turned around and saw more gnosis appear.

"Damn, no more Hilbert effect!" Jr. yelled as he fired, to no effect. Suddenly, a Hilbert effect erupted from the soldier, piercing the air and blasting out, to what range Jr. had no clue. He flipped his rifle up to his shoulder and unloaded, emptying another clip before rolling the rifle in a circle over his thumb and loading a new clip with one arm in one smooth quick move before slamming a round home and bringing it back to his shoulder, emptying another clip in a half circle of the room within 6 seconds. A horror came up next to him before he uppercutted it, sending it flying backwards, the head lopsided and angled wrong after the hit, before it landed and didn't move again. He reloaded again and opened up, holding them at bay before sentinels filtered in from other rooms and helped before he stopped firing.

"how's your friend doing?" Garrett asked.

"she's… she's going to die… we have to get her out of here… but… we don't have the medical facilities to help her… the Elsa… we don't have anything to save her! No!" Shion finally screamed and cried, holding Mirie cradled in her arms and Mirie slowly drifted away, her blood flowing freely.

"ah, a reclaimer! Finally! Here! I knew there was one out there, I knew they were not extinct!" a humming voice was heard nearby as the monitor slipped from a vent.

"a… reclaimer?" Jr. asked.

"shit…" Garrett said out loud as the monitor floated about, almost joyous in it's movements.

"finally! After all this time! I knew they had survived to reproduce! I must ask you what has been happening all of this time… oh, but, this one is hurt. Her body has been punctured" the monitor said, finally noticing Mirie laying on the floor.

"of course she's hurt! Damn it help her!" Shion yelled at the monitor.

"yelling will accomplish nothing young lady, and unfortunately there are no medical facilities still in operation in the surrounding area. I apologize, but she will die unless those facilities are brought online, which will never be able to happen. I am sorry" the monitor said cockily.

"I have the medical facilities available" Garrett said.

"you… do? Where?" Shion asked. Garrett flipped through a listing and materialized through an on site field surgery kit and saw it slam into the ground with a loud CLANG! As it unfolded into a fully functional surgery station.

"but… I don't know how to… I mean…" Shion asked.

"leave this to me. I've been trained as a combat medic and field surgeon" Garrett said as he sat down and placed Mirie on the table. Garrett looked around a bit before staring right into Mirie's eyes.

"this is going to hurt. I'll try to make it quick" Garrett said before pulling out a small anesthetic hypo and inserting it into her arm. It felt like fire, and her breathing quickened. Mirie's eyes closed tightly as a tear came down before opening them again. The anesthetic started to take effect as it numbed her nerves, but also kept her awake during the procedure.

"keep her from looking down" Garrett said to Shion as he told her to hold her head away. Shion nodded and held her head, covering her eyes with her arm as Garrett opened her robe and exposed her chest. Halfway over her right breast was a ragged opening leaking blood and a clear fluid, most likely condensed water from the hot air still coming out. Garrett checked with his goggles her med stats. Her right lung had collapsed and 3 ribs were shattered, two in the back, one in front. Two muscles were severed near her back as well, but he could repair those easily.

Garrett worked quickly to open her chest with a surgical laser and let the cloning vat nearby do its work to recreate her lung. He placed clamps down on skin and bone as he kept her open, she looking up at Shion as she closed her eyes to keep from looking. Garrett's armored gloves started to get bloody as he pushed his hands through the auto cleaner as it sprayed a warm saline mist onto them, then blow dried them and continued working. The lung was fully recreated and he pulled it out, sliding it in and knitting it to the open hole he had cut from the old lung, before slicing parts from the old lung and knitting pieces of the muscle tissue together. The rest could be done by the surgical microbes packets he placed at key points to bring her back to full health, but she wasn't going to be walking on her own or doing sports anytime soon. For the most part, he had done his job, and knitted her skin back together and slipped a med hypo into her with another packet of microbes to sew the skin back up. He pushed her robe back into position, doing his best to cover her breasts even though he wasn't used to dressing a woman, and patted Shion on the shoulder.

Shion opened her eyes to find Garrett standing up and wiping his gloves clean, Mirie looking around to find her chest completely numb, but she could breath. Garrett suddenly remembered what he was always told to say during a combat surgery.

"you may feel an odd sense to your skin, and try not to put too much effort in breathing, no sudden breaths or deep breaths, keep calm and controlled for a day or so, it'll take 24 hours for your body to heal the wound fully, and few more days to get used to the new lung and regain what you previously had" he professionally stated. She nodded slightly, holding her chest with her hand as Shion helped her up.

"oh, and your not walking on your own for a while" Garrett added in as a sentinel shattered against the wall as more gnosis started to break through the wall of lasers.

"they're moving again!" Jr. yelled as Garrett dematerialized the combat kit and prepped his rifle against his shoulder before motioning towards a doorway.

"That way" he said as he moved through it carefully and steadily as Shion walked Mirie through it, holding her up as Garrett and Jr. covered them. A gnosis leapt from a nearby vent and tried to grapple with the huge soldier, but Garrett rifle butted it as it flipped end over end before he brought his fist down and smashed into it's back, slamming it hard into the ground and cracking the floor. Shion's eyes went wide as she saw the manuever. The only other person she had ever seen with strength similar was KOS-MOS. Could he be an android as well? Something about him seemed not normal.

Garrett turned around at that moment, the eerie blue goggles shined towards her before he motioned with his head to moved forward. Whatever he was, she now knew he wasn't mechanical.

They turned a corner before a huge gnosis stood there, seeming to be a cross between a gorilla and a rhinoceros, and very angry. It raised it's horn into the air to charge it with energy as Jr. rushed to help Shion get Mirie out of the way before the energy discharged, a huge laser cutting across the ground as all three dove to the ground, Mirie gasping. It wasn't a good idea for her to be in stress after the surgery.

Garrett ran forward, firing wildly at it to get it's attention as it roared and tried to flatten him. Garrett rolled out of the way deftly, leapt into the air and kicked before firing into it's back and landing, only to find the horn swung straight at him. Then he did something unexpected. Shion expected him to be impaled on the huge spike, like she would expect anyone, KOS-MOS included, to be. This man grabbed it at the last second, his reflexes incredible, and held it as he skidded slightly backwards before stopping, his weight clearly not normal in his armor.

Garrett started to push forward, phalanx style, placing his feet together forward to brace himself as he stepped forward again, never turning. The gnosis tried to break away, but every time it tried to pull, Garrett's feet would suddenly make a clunk sound, before the gnosis would push, and Garrett would push as well. As he moved forward, where the sound of something slamming into the metal was heard, small holes were seen where he once stood, obviously showing he had locked his armor down and rooted to keep from moving.

At the last pull back from the gnosis in which it was viciously angry, Garrett let go as it reared up. Garrett lunged forward and pulled out one of his plasma blades and impaled up to the hilt straight into it's chest, the gnosis gurgled slightly as Garrett twisted, hoping against hope he would hit other vital parts besides simply hurting it. The gnosis toppled over as Garrett pulled his sword out and deactivated it, before walking back up to the three on the ground who stared at him.

The Seven foot tall soldier helped them up as Jr. looked at him.

"what are you by chance?" Jr. asked.

"A Spartan" he responded before turning around and picking up his rifle.

"you gotta a name?" Jr. asked.

"Spartan" Garrett again responded.

"no no, a real name" Jr. asked.

"Spartan is the only name you need to know right now" Garrett said, sticking with Cole Protocol Article 9.

"hey, wait, that doesn't…" Jr. said before he trailed off, Shion helping Mirie forward.

"Which way do we go?" Shion asked.

"that way" Garrett pointed and picked Mirie up, carrying her as he walked forward, Shion following as Jr. sighed and jogged behind.


	6. Dust Off

Garrett swapped through frequencies in all channels trying to reach the Captain as he carried along Mirie with both Shion and Jr. in tow. He had no idea he would run into any of them as he ran down the ventilation tunnel towards the grate wall before smashing into it, and now he had to take it upon himself to escort them out.

"This… One Three… calling… report… Corporal… you there?" Garrett heard from one channel as his slicing softs kicked in through the static.

"I'm here Captain, what's your status" Garrett responded, motioning for everyone to stop as he put Mirie down. He pressed against his right ear out of habit, as normally his com rig was attached as an earband.

"I'm on board a ship with KOS-MOS's friends on it, they picked us up, are you ok?" Archerson asked.

"currently escorting three civilians out of the bunker zone, we are being pursued by multiple gnosis contacts. You said you had a ship sir?" Garrett answered.

"yes, we're attempting to lead the armada of gnosis away from your location then double back quickly. We'll pick you up somewhere, but it still looks like your link location is… underground?" Archerson sounded bewildered.

"that is correct" Garrett said, looking around at everyone.

"alright… alright. This is what we're gonna do. KOS-MOS is currently still in her pod undergoing slight maintanence, only thing the professor on this ship can do with all the damage she's received. She's still active however. I'll take a few of the guys up here with me and meet you halfway down there, then we'll get back out of the shithole and figure out what's going on without having to fight. Are you Sound?" Archerson asked in command speech.

"Clear as a bell. I-" Garrett tried to ask how far away they were before Shion yelled out "Is Allen there?! Can I speak to him please?! Is KOS-MOS ok?!" as Jr. tried to make her be quiet.

"um, sir, is there an Allen… Allen Ridgley onboard that ship?" Garrett asked as Shion looked hopeful.

"yes he is Corporal, he's one of the guys I'll be attempting to bring along, but I doubt I'll have to drag him. Seems he's keen on regrouping with his wife down there. And he's fine" Archerson smirked on the other side.

"understood. I-" Garrett stopped mid sentence as his sensors picked up life signs all too well known for him before the teleport. IFF signals, mobile, and UNSC. All of them registered as ODSTs.

"Captain, are you reading my sensor feedback?" Garrett asked.

"yes I am corporal, and- hey! Don't push me out of the way! Of course I rigged your sensors to get a backwash of info from my soldier you retard!" Garrett heard Archerson yelp as another voice, who was being called Hammer in the background, groaned and looked over the systems.

"sir, permission to regroup with the Helljumpers as a detour? They may not last against the Gnosis" Garrett asked as he checked the clip in his rifle. Full lid, one in the chamber.

"do it son, and then we'll catch up. See you soon. Archerson out" the Captain said before the com channel closed.

"wait, so we're going to pick up some more of your friends before we get out of here?" Jr. asked.

"yes" Garrett answered as he picked up Mirie again, she putting her arms around his neck.

"will they look like you or?" Jr. asked eyeing him up and down. Garrett looked in his direction.

"they are Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, they are not Spartans. Trained Marines in atmospheric entry and infiltration, black ops. I need to link up with them and gain radio contact, then all of us will leave the hot zone" Garrett told everyone.

"sounds good, lead the way" Shion said as Jr. gawked.

"are you serious? We need to get Mirie on board the ship like now!" Jr. said.

"I'm fine, really, thanks to this man right here, but those men will not be if we leave them to die. This Spartan has helped us, we can do none other than help his friends" Mirie told them.

Garrett nodded and moved through multiple corridors, ripping apart a destroyed door halfway and pushing some debris out of their path.

Garrett stopped mid foot and put Mirie down slowly, then pulled his rifle. Jr. pulled his pistol and Shion crouched before Garrett motioned everyone to stay there as he inched up to a corner. He stealthed away with his active camouflage, becoming nothing more than a wisp of smoke as he disappeared, before a rifle slowly inched around the corner with Jr. waiting.

"don't even think about it" Jr. said as he aimed his pistol at the head of a man poking around.

"Jr!" Shion yelped as he turned around to find another man in black armor with his rifle to her head, Mirie with another man of similar armor standing over her.

"damn it…" he said before he put his pistol down, the soldier coming fully around the corner and pulling the pistol away.

"kid, did you really think I didn't have backup? Sheesh…" the first soldier said as he lowered his rifle, shaking his head. Two more came around the corner after him, one wearing slightly greenish tinted armor, another in a tan and blue with a red cross on his shoulder, obviously a combat medic.

"yo sir, this one's wounded, I think, maybe, I dunno, someone patched her up" the soldier standing over Mirie said.

"looks like the work of one of ours. Strange that rebels would have our combat surgery kits… must have gotten em from a stolen shipment. Ok… now… you three are going to tell me where…" he stopped suddenly as he heard a clink sound and all of them crouched.

"shit, it better not be those things again…" the medic said as he raised his rifle and looked around.

"calm down private, it might have just been a…" and his rifle was taken from him in the blink of an eye followed by the medic's rifle as something translucent and big slid in front of him.

"shit!" the soldier standing over Mirie yelled as he fired at the shape straight at his superior officer, only to hit energy shields as the thing turned off the camouflage, Garrett turning around and gaining another barrage to his chest. All the soldiers stared at him in disbelief as he looked down, then shook his head and told them to stand down.

"whose in charge here" Garrett asked as he made friendly symbol with his hands, telling them he was UNSC as well.

"er, Corporal Magen, sir?" one of the soldiers said.

"I'm in charge, who the hell are you asshole?" Magen said right behind him, her voice little annoyed.

"Corporal Spartan 003, I'm here to link up with your squad and escort you out of here, then regroup with Captain Archerson of the 105th" Garrett responded.

"Captain? Wha… so they sent a rescue team in after us… after we got used like guinea pigs…" Magen said grumbling.

"we all did. Now, link your squad detail up and let's move, I've been given temporary command until we get out" Garrett said as he pointed to his helmet. Magen pulled out a small crystal chip from her helmet and gave it to Garrett as he plugged it into the side, reading the datalogs and service records of his team. Private Michaels was the combat medic, Private Greys was the sniper, Private Helden was the close combat specialist, and specialist Wilson was the engineer in green armor, making five people in the squad all accounted for, no KIA.

"show the way sir" Magen said sighing.

All of them got up and walked back the way they came, only to find a huge tunnel with a large bridge going down the middle. On both sides were what looked like large nozzels, all inoperable.

"Helden, take point…" Garrett said as he motioned for the marine to move forward.

Garrett covered his back as they moved carefully in, watching the sides and the door on the other side. As they made it to the door, Wilson started to type in passcodes and crack the system, only to get errors.

"damn it, won't budge, no power. Shit is being diverted to other areas of the place. We need a control bypass" Wilson told everyone.

"can you do it?" Magen asked.

"I need an access code for the controls to keep the security off me" Wilson said.

"huh, got one?" Magen said sarcastically.

"ya, in my other pants" Wilson snapped.

"do it marine. We don't have time for-" Magen shut up as she turned around, hearing movement.

"contacts… nine of them… ten… thirteen… more coming…" Garrett said as he raised his rifle, all the hell jumpers aiming behind them.

"Wilson, get that door open yesterday…" Magen ordered.

"working on it" Wilson said as he popped the panel from the wall and handed it to Mirie as she placed it to her side, before checking crystals and pulled at wires.

The first horror walked around the corner far out from the door from a second path of rooms, then two more from the other side.

"here they come…" Helden said as he aimed his shotgun.

"and again we won't do any damage…" Michaels said.

"not this time" Garrett told them as his shields flexed and erupted out, the Hilbert effect merging the gnosis into their plane of existence.

"what the…" Greys said as he looked quizzically.

"don't ask questions marine! Shoot!" Magen ordered as she fired, spraying round after round towards the horrors as they shambled towards them, more pouring from the nearby rooms and funneling toward them.

Greys fired round after round from his sniper rifle as Helden pumped twelve shells in rapid succession down the tunnel, filling the air with pellets and tracer rounds.

"Wilson…" Magen groaned out as she reloaded a new clip in as the horrors made it to the tunnel entrance and started to move in.

"almost got it…" Wilson said as he poked and prodded through access controls.

"now marine! Now!" she yelled as Garrett rushed forward, bullrushed 3 horrors and knocked them back, only to leap backwards and get back to his old position, before firing again. The horrors went flying backwards, throwing a good portion of them off their feet, but more poured over them, slowly stomping over their comrades.

"damn there's just no end to them!" Jr. yelled as he fired his one pistol before pulling the sidearm of one of the marines next to him and spraying his own death.

"fucking flood if you ask me!" Helden yelled over his shots before Wilson popped the door open.

"we're green to go!" he yelled as he looked up to come face to face with a gnosis horror, and just as he backed away and the horror tried to strike him, a rifle round snapped out right through it's head as Garrett turned, firing his rifle with one arm before telling everyone to pull back.

The marines grabbed Mirie and Jr. and pulled them back through the door just as Shion was grabbed by her legs and thrown over the mass of horrors, screaming.

"shit! Damn it! There's no way!" Wilson yelled as he aimed, hoping against hope he'd see a hand pop out telling she was alive. No movement.

"she's a goner! We gotta move!" Magen yelled just as Garrett rushed forward, smashing into the wave of gnosis and throwing fast punches and kicks before igniting his plasma blades and going to work, clearing the front and reaching Shion just as three of the gnosis were about to finish her and impale her into the ground. She looked beat up, but alive, and covering her face with her arm just as Garrett slashed out, cutting the gnosis in two before grabbing Shion by her belt and throwing her out of the mass, the marines grabbing her just as Garrett leapt right over.

The marines stared at him in awe as he closed the door, before reloading his clip.

"whoa… I thought the rumors were false.. but they really did make another… a true blue Spartan…" Wilson yelped. Shion coughed as she felt her sides, the beating she received was harsh but not enough to break anything, and looked up with blood trickling from the side of her mouth.

"what is a Spartan?" Mirie asked Wilson as Garrett walked by them, checking the corrider further down for hostiles as they rested and reloaded.

"a Spartan is a super soldier from our past, during the major Covenant War. They're Genetically enhanced, Cybernetically Augmented Soldiers that have the strength to use an MBT as a club and absorb huge amounts of firepower before going down… if they go down… to this day the rumors still stand you can't kill a Spartan" Michaels said as he treated Shion's bruises.

"wait… so the Corporal is… one of those?" Shion asked.

"we don't know, unless he's over one hundred years old, which was when the Spartan IIs were made, which I seriously doubt" Wilson said.

"a two? How many types are there?" Jr. asked.

"technically? Three from what I heard, the first ones weren't even augmented, just children trained from birth to fight like soldiers. The twos were the ones given augmentations and then given powered armor, making automated combat drones obsolete and even most vehicular combat. The threes… dunno much about them… guess just better armored or something…" Magen said while staring out into space.

"mass produced…" Garrett whispered as he looked at the small thin band on the inside of his armored glove, remembrance of all the Spartans that came before him.

"we should get moving again" Garrett told everyone as Michaels finished up with dabbing Shion's bruises and cleaned up the medical kit, everyone reloading fresh clips in their rifles before getting up.

"hey, guys, check this out. There's a sensor richochete off the paneling… what the hell is that…" Wilson said as he looked at a small hand reader.

"it's coming from down that hallway… but our exit plan is in that direction…" Magen pointed in the opposite hallway.

"it's… bouncing off the wall sections around the corner there… it's an energy reading… fluctuating, but it's there. What do you think?" Wilson asked.

"it's the power rotation couplings the gnosis hit before we got here. It's inoperable, however we might be able to fix it and give us a clear exit" Garrett said turning to everyone, his goggle's coloring blood red before turning blue again, scaring everyone.

"alright… I guess… we're going that way…" Magen said before hearing footsteps nearby.

"take cover, inbound!" Helden said as he pressed against the wall and looked around the corner, everyone watching. Archerson ran forward and stopped with Allen in tow, Mary right behind along with Mathews and an auto defense droid from the cargo bay.

"Corporal, jesus it's good to see you again" the Captain sighed as he walked forward as Garrett did the same, everyone else watching them as Garrett saluted.

"sir, this is corporal Magen, she was in charge of squad 302 before we came in. you may want her report after we get out of here" Garrett told him.

"hmm, under the circumstances, I'm guessing it's the same as us, but right now we need to get everyone out of here. Those things are coming back after the ship, and we need to get airborne soon. Any wounded?" Archerson asked.

"none sir, thanks to your Spartan here" Magen thumbed towards Garrett as he looked around. Archerson motioned for everyone to go through the tunnel they just came from, and as Mirie was helped through by Shion, an airlock door slammed closed between them.

"crap, Wilson, what the hell is going on?" Magen yelled as they tried to force it open, with both the Captain and Garrett locked on the other side.

"shit, I must have triggered the close off when I opened the last one… hang on sirs, we'll get you guys out of there…" Wilson said as he pulled out his portable mainframe.

"no time. Get to the ship, we'll meet with you guys at the dust off. We'll find another way around" Archerson said before nodding to Garrett as he nodded back, both turning around and running towards the sensor ping they had before.

"son, you know where we're going?" Archerson asked.

"there was a power coupling in the next area, if we can get it operational again, we might overload the door locks and get out again" Garrett told him.

"and if we don't?" the Captain asked.

"we get flash fried from the power output" Garrett warned.

"just like old times huh?" Archerson chuckled.

"fond memories sir" Garrett said as they entered the power room, a huge cone shaped reactor, easily dwarfing most ships. Balconies and catwalks crisscrossed all over with access panels at different points, along with ladders and elevators on the sides to move from level to level to do maintenance on the reactor. Small machines flitted about performing what repairs they could, but gnosis were walking around as well, attacking whatever moved by them.

"Captain! Are you there?" Allen said over a com channel.

"ya Allen, we're still kicking, you guys at the ship yet?" the Captain asked.

"yes, Shion and everyone is back, how are you guys doing?" Allen asked.

"we're gonna blow the power control couplings and hopefully give us a way out of here, just sit tight" The captain said before trying to turn off the com channel. It wouldn't turn off.

"what the, this thing's busted…" Archerson grumbled.

"the power interference is ignoring all signal commands to the coms, they'll hear everything we say until we get out of here" Garrett said.

"wonderful, they can hear me bitch and swear as we blow up this damned place…" Archerson groaned.

"we're still here Captain, waiting for your go" Allen said.

(Apocalyptica, Path, Cult Version)

"ok Corporal, lets punch it" the ODST said as both climbed ladders, firing at gnosis along the way and disabling stations as they went, power readings rising slowly.

"how many more?" Archerson asked.

"spike levels are at 70 percent, we need six more before we've got enough burst power to overload the doors" Garrett said.

"hurry up down there guys! The gnosis reinforcements are coming back!" Mathews said as Archerson told him to shut up.

"you wanna come down here and help?" Archerson grumbled.

"4 more" Garrett said as he disabled another, the captain running towards him from another catwalk. They both reached the same one, but neither could get the control panel open.

"damn it! Try the others!" Archerson said as Garrett ran towards another before gnosis started to crawl up towards them along the walls.

"incoming" Garrett said as he pulled his rifle and fired, Archerson spinning around and primed a grenade before throwing it.

"3 more" Garrett said as more gnosis started shambling towards them, trying to close off their pathways just as emergence holes appeared on the ground, paneling caving in as the bugheaded creatures poured out, firing at them as they came.

"shit, we're so fucked!" Archerson yelled as he kicked the control panel, the thing turning on as Garrett rushed towards the second to last.

"two more!" Archerson yelled as he leapt from his level to the second tier balcony, slamming his rifle into the next panel as Garrett punched in a few override commands he knew from his training.

"we're clear! Power levels charged! Emitting in 10!" Archerson yelled as he leapt down, a stray ball of energy flying by his head as he rolled and ran.

"corporal! Move!" Archerson yelled as Garrett turned and leapt, Seven stories high, and slammed his feet into the ground, crunching the panels and causing a small crater before running in full speed towards him as he ran out of the room, the gnosis firing after them. Three grenades were left in their wake as they charged towards the door they wanted open, and just as they reached it the power controls overrode and opened, before a wave of energy started to build up behind them.

"GO! GO! GO!" Archerson barked as they ran up the tunnel and up a flight of stairs, turning a corner and heading to an elevator with a ladder heading up from the top. Both climbed on top and climbed up the ladder as fast as they could as the energy wave rushed towards them. As they got to the top, the wave hit below, sending a backwash upwards and frying the metal behind them, before they ran towards the entry tunnel as the wave hit the area, smashing and destroying the surroundings.

"Captain! Captain! Are you alright? Do you read me?" Allen yelled as he tried to gain contact again, hearing Shion behind him and Mirie asking questions.

"I'm not getting a response…" Allen said before hearing heavy breathing.

"Captain? Are you ok?" Allen asked one more time.

"you'd be surprised what you can live through…" Archerson groaned as he stumbled out of a cloud of smoke and debris, Garrett following unscathed holding him up where needed.

"Garrett… next time… let's not do that again… let's think up a better plan besides nuke the building ok?" The Captain said.

"understood sir" Garrett responded.

"Elsa, this is rescue team leader, pick us up at dust off, ready and willing, over" Archerson said then coughed.

"ready to go, we're… heads up guys! Gnosis inbound!" Hammer yelled as gnosis emergence holes started appearing nearby the two men.

"shit, Elsa, dust off is hot! Repeat, dust off is hot! Get the hell out of here! Save yourselves!" Archerson yelled as he pulled his rifle and fired, energy balls flying past him as he took cover. Garrett opened up as he slid behind a cracked piece of plating.

"Tony! Get them out of there! Now!" Mathews yelled as both men started to get flanked.

The Elsa flew in fast, trying it's best to land as the rounds from the gnosis started to hit the hull.

"no good! We can't get any closer!" Tony yelled backwards.

"damn it… they're goners if we don't get them now…" Mathews whispered.

"wait, where's Shion?" Allen asked.

"where's Mirie?" Jr. asked afterwards. All the men looked around before checking their life signs in KOS-MOS's maintenance room.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Shion opened the pod slowly as KOS-MOS lay there, and gasped. The damage was extensive, her legs were gone, nubs of semi closed holes and tattered clothing, her face grimy, but her eyes were so alive, finally seeing Shion once again.

Shion pulled her up and hugged her tightly, almost crying, not wanting to let go. KOS-MOS returned the hug as Mirie watched, before slowly pulling away.

"KOS-MOS, you and I, we were one and the same in the past, both of us wanting nothing more than Shion to be happy. We couldn't complete what we started, and now we have a chance. But now I am here, and you… you must be here as well" Mirie knelt next to the pod, taking KOS-MOS's right hand in hers.

"I gave you a piece of me as a gift, for you were the one who fought, not I, and for that I will always be thankful for protecting her. But, even now, I still feel you require more than just that, something I may be able to give you now, even in my weakened state. Are you ready?" Mirie asked KOS-MOS.

"yes. Please proceed" KOS-MOS nodded, smiling softly.

"very well, KOS-MOS" Mirie stood up, wobbling slightly, and took a stance with her hands raised towards KOS-MOS. Her hands started to glow brightly, KOS-MOS lifting out of the pod in the glow.

There was a bright light that came from the room, golden in glow, as two men, the professor and Scott, ran out, covering their eyes. As they sat on the ground, trying to see through the golden glow, KOS-MOS walked forwards and out of the room, followed by Mirie and Shion. Her legs were whole again, and she looked completely unscathed, the only thing altered being her visor, the two jewels on either side still being there.

"Mirie. Thank you" KOS-MOS said as she turned around, smiling.

"it is the least I can do for you, sister. Flesh and blood, at least" Mirie nodded. KOS-MOS hugged Mirie, then both pulled away.

"Something is happening outside the ship" Mirie said, being held up by Shion.

KOS-MOS and Shion looked at each other, KOS-MOS no longer a machine with sensors, but eyes and ears.

"oh no! The Spartan and his captain!" Shion gasped.

"they need help" Mirie said gravely.

"I believe… that they have all the strength they need…" KOS-MOS said, making both women look at her in confusion.

"we must get to the bridge. We must know more" KOS-MOS said before helping move Mirie down the hall and upstairs.

(Breaking Benjamin, Blow Me Away)

"oh my god… he's unstoppable!" Jr. yelled staring at the bridge as he watched the ensuing chaos caused by the Spartan down below, moving from cover to cover on the view screen as everyone saw the battle.

"down in front!" Archerson yelled out to Garrett as he turned and punched. He was waving in another direction before yelling an order to Garrett, who swapped to a Battle Rifle and aimed right at another gnosis, firing a three round burst that trailed, the other two rounds hitting two more gnosis nearby. His blue goggles stared down the sight of his rifle as he fired a triple round burst again, flying right by Archerson's ear as a gnosis behind him gained three bullets in between it's eyes.

"nice shot son" Archerson grinned as Garrett started to almost auto target multiple gnosis behind him as he turned back around to continue the fight, all headshots. He started to walk slowly forward out of his cover, reloading a new clip before continuing his onslaught as Archerson closed in behind him, covering his flanks. One gnosis attacked as Archerson barely dodged to the left, cutting his right arm and making him bleed, and also causing a very big question to come across Archerson's face.

"what the… huh? Wha, shit!" he was about to ask how these things were so clumsy right now, before he was attacked again and Garrett flipped his pistol from his armored hip armor and fired at the oncoming gnosis, before placing it back in the armor as the plates closed back up, sealing again.

"we need to mobilize, now" Garrett said as he put his hand out, tracing through his armory listing and finally saw (complete) on the diagnostic for vehicular maintenance. A warthog materialized in front of them, and Garrett got in the driver's seat.

"Mount up!" Archerson yelled as he leapt into the Gunner's seat, stamping his feet against the paneling in the back, and engaged the turret swivel controls.

"to your left!" Archerson yelled as he flipped the gun around, aiming where he warned and fired. The Elsa flew low as the warthog drove, right behind the large ship as the cargo doors opened again, gliding a few inches from the ground as worms exploded around them from the earth, attacking where they could.

Garrett weaved the LRV around the worms and slammed the brakes once before flooring it again, as the gnosis tried to keep them from leaving.

The warthog hit the edge of the Elsa's cargo door, barely on the landing pad before falling off of it and trying again.

"make it count! Drive!" Archerson yelled as gnosis came after them.

KOS-MOS suddenly appeared on the edge of the cargo door, her chain gun in hand and emptying round after round behind them for cover fire. Garrett suddenly floored the warthog to the maximum, and hit the bump, causing the warthog to arc and jump, clearing right over the woman with all four huge wheels slamming down behind her before fishtailing again and Garrett revved the engine, Archerson nonstop firing.

"get us the hell out of dodge!" Archerson yelled as Garrett nearly flipped out of the driver's seat, pulled his MA6B at the same time, and began to unload as the door slowly closed and the ship ascended.

As the ship closed the door, Garrett flipped his rifle upside down and ejected his clip before slamming another in and then forcing a round into the chamber before placing it on his back, the armor panels magnetic WHUMP! Sound emitting.

Allen and the rest of the group ran through the door on the second tier as Archerson got off the warthog, the huge LRV parked right next to a crudely repaired Monobike used for the Dinah controls, lights still bright, the chain gun still smoking. The hog looked out of place, the armoring and green plating was at a disadvantage in sleekness compared to the bike KOS-MOS drove, however, it looked far meaner, the tusks on the front showing it had some muscle.

"Archerson, good to get you out of there and… whoa…" Allen stopped in front of the huge Spartan, easily dwarfing the man. Garrett looked towards him and nodded before looking back at Archerson.

"he's… taller than I saw on the view screen…" Allen said before Shion nudged him, he rubbing his side.

"so, now that we've settled out of the way from the gnosis, can we sit down for a few and sleep? I could use a shower…" Archerson sighed.

"the men's cabin is this way, no worries man" Mathews told him as he guided him forward, Garrett following as everyone else seemed to stare at the armored man in disbelief. He was in the full sense of the word mythological in look, more greek war god than human. His walking was a strong and proud stride, showing honor and confidence.

"so, um, your name is Garrett?" KOS-MOS asked as he walked by, before Archerson and he turned and stared at the three women there.

"you shouldn't know that name" Garrett warned, as Archerson sighed.

"I guess I might have said it in the heat of the fight before… looks like the cat is out of the bag… look, you're not supposed to know a damned thing about him, he's a code black you got that? Leave it at that. Don't ask questions, just let him do his thing when he needs to. We sure as hell don't" Archerson told everyone. KOS-MOS nodded as she turned and looked at the huge man, the blue goggles staring her down.

((two hours later))

"alright, now, why were we called here?" Archerson asked as he rubbed water out of his hair with a towel, a clean pair of combat fatigues on as Garrett stood behind him, fully armored. No one had seen what he looks like under the paneling and Kevlar, and no one wanted to ask if he had a shower as well. The warning they all gained was very clear. Garrett would remain an enigma.

"well, we've both asked questions of each other, but now I think the best option is to pool our resources and help one another. The gnosis is a common threat, to both of us. If we can fix what has happened now, you may be able to go home. If not, we die" Mirie told him gravely as she sat in a chair in the briefing room.

"hmm, I agree, what needs to be done?" Archerson asked as he looked towards Garrett behind him, the other ODSTs outside the door, leaning against the walls.

"we need to find the Ark main operations room, and activate the controls" Mirie said.

"whoa, wait, hang on, Ark?! No fucking way! Your bat shit lady!" Archerson yelled.

"hey, be nice pal!" Jr. growled.

"over my dead body! We know what the fuck that thing does from personal experience! We don't want anything to do with that thing!" Archerson barked.

"but why? It will save humanity and this world if we do" Shion said.

"bullshit! The Ark controls the halos, making all of us get blown to fucking hell!" Archerson yelled at her.

"the halos? What are those?" Mary asked in the corner.

"wha? You mean… you've never heard of them? Weapons of mass destruction, kills everything within 25,000 light years, and there's seven of them in the galaxy. They blow, we die, and the Ark is the activation platform on Earth. Everybody knows… this…" Archerson suddenly lowered his voice and thought for a second.

"the Ark here does not do that Captain, far from it. It will save us from everything we have started, and fix what we have lost" Mirie told him.

"so… no halos?" Magen asked behind them.

"I still do not know what a halo actually is, but we have never seen one in the past, or detected one" Shion said.

All of the UNSC personnel in the room looked at each other.

"we need to talk amongst our military asses for a few, gives us a sec" Archerson told them before Garrett backed up into the hallway and they talked. The others watched them as they whispered and said things, Wilson gawked for a second before getting slapped behind his head, Garrett remained motionless and unobservable around the corner.

"I guess we have no choice, maybe the forerunners made different shit here, or maybe they just never got around to making the halos cause there isn't any flood" Magen said.

"hmm, your right corporal. Alright, I'm not gonna ask whose in, we're all here and you already volunteered for this kind of shit when you signed on to the marines apes, so your in for the long haul" Archerson said before turning around and looking at everyone in the briefing room.

"alright. We're in. what do we gotta do?" he answered as everyone behind him nodded in agreement.


	7. Exodus

Archerson for the next two days had the squad help maintain the ship and gain intel, and also set up their personal camp in the cargo bay. Sat link station, trans-communication relay panel and everything they needed to set up a personal pill box inside the ship was materialized by Garrett's sub space armory. KOS-MOS, Mirie and Shion all for the most part were unseen inside the women's quarters, mayhap they were catching up, Garrett didn't know. He frankly didn't care. His job was to focus on gaining information on the surroundings, and gain an entrance point to the Ark. No luck.

"how's it going Garrett?" Magen asked from behind him. She was slightly short, standing at only 5' 4" and having red hair, with a ponytail. It was against regulations for most marines to have their hair at any length beyond the crew cut, to keep an enemy from grabbing hold of it in melee, but with the covenant constantly keeping humanity against the wall, they've let her keep it. Her green eyes twinkled now that they settled down and relaxed, her tank top showing with half her armor pushed down to her waist.

Garrett stood up to his full height again after reading through data logs and analysis from Wilson, who, happened to be working on his handicap leg implants. The man had been a paraplegic since birth, and only the external implants issued to him allowed him to walk like anyone else.

"fine. Shouldn't you be working on the gnosis tactical information?" Garrett asked, wondering why she was being friendly.

"already finished. Here they are. Hope it's workable, only thing we were able to trace of their behavior while we were down there. Got the entrance mapped out yet?" she said, handing him a data pad and then handing him the data crystal after. Marines do not give both things together, something he figured out was due to security measures. Technically speaking, Garrett was neither Marine nor Navy, he wasn't even a part of the UNSC. He was a fully labeled specialist, and had diplomatic immunity through most channels. In all real honesty, he had more authority than Captain Archerson himself.

"a secondary brain emitting tactical information? How did you come about with this?" Garrett asked, pondering the idea.

"while we were down there, we had been underground for most of the time, at least for the two days before you came along. As we scouted the area, we found that when we were attacked by those bastards, that they were given orders by something else not seen. Ordinarily we might have thought it was some form of unheard language or high frequency emitting wave, however, we did trace this" Magen said as she pressed a button on the data pad. It was a warble, nothing loud, but it was there, and it happened every time the gnosis appeared in the data logs from her helmet.

"and you think something is telling these to attack or retreat?" Garrett asked.

"why else? We already know these things out number us, outgun us in most cases due to not being on the same material plane of existence for our weapons to hurt them, well, without you being there of course" she coughed.

"so something is telling them to hound us" Garrett said, thinking of a way to use this to their advantage.

"yup. Why? What are you thinking?" Magen asked.

"we need to talk to the captain immediately" Garrett said as he picked up the portable mainframe he was working on and Wilson stood up before stumbling slightly and sitting down again. Garret helped him up just as KOS-MOS, Shion, and Mirie walked through the top tier door and stared at the base camp sitting in the middle of the AMWS bay.

"wow, when you guys go all out, you guys go all out" Shion said looking at everything.

"from zero to combat ready in less than an hour, it's what we get paid for" Magen chuckled.

Shion now noticed there were two warthogs and what looked like a very big tank, with a scorpion painted on the front armored tred, sitting behind the camp, and Helden and Michaels were staring at view screens and monitors of ammo rigging for the vehicles.

"ok, start her up" Michaels said as Helden turned the tank on, the huge fusion cell reactor chugging and spinning it's power coils as it revved, before swiveling the turret left and right.

"need something ma'am?" Garrett asked, walking up to the ladies.

"uh, well, um, we were wondering, since you all are right here, I was just showing KOS-MOS and Mirie some cooking recipes, and well, we got to making things, and… well" Shion tried to find the words to ask them.

"yes?" Garrett stood there, motionless.

"are any of you hungry by chance?" Mirie finally asked.

"I'll take a cheeseburger!" Wilson yelled as Helden seconded the motion, as Magen and Michaels wanted burritos.

"um… I was thinking more…" Shion couldn't even finish saying it before Captain Archerson came in behind them.

"why the hell it'd have to be chicken?!" he yelled behind them, startling all but Mirie.

"but captain, I didn't know you hated chicken so much" Shion asked.

"you don't understand. In the Marines, 90 percent of the damned MREs are chicken cutlets, chicken jerky, chicken delight, and god damned KFC!" he barked, annoyed obviously.

"um, an MRE?" Shion asked, looking at KOS-MOS.

"an MRE is a Meal Ready to Eat Shion" KOS-MOS told her.

"more like Meal Rejected by Everybody" Magen snorted behind Garrett.

"that stuff tastes like toilet paper" Helden said in the background.

"that's because you were EATING the toilet paper man" Wilson said over his shoulder as he cleaned some sunglasses.

"oh" Helden looked embarrassed as Michaels laughed before getting slugged in the shoulder.

"well, captain, you don't have to eat if you don't want to, we are offering some to anyone here if they wish" Shion said, smiling at Garrett.

"I'm in" Magen said, pushing by the armored man as everyone piled out of the bay, all except Garrett.

"I'll eat down here. I still have some work to do" Garrett said.

"oh, um, alright, I guess, we'll bring some down to you in a little bit then" Shion said.

"understood. Have a good dinner then" Garrett responded before nodding to them, then saluting Archerson and turning around. Archerson nodded at him and gave the at ease signal, before sighing and rubbing his temples.

"is he always like this? Not exactly friendly is he" Shion asked.

"he's a Spartan, what can I say. I told you, don't ask questions. It's best left not known" Archerson said.

"but you can tell us why he acts this way? All gruff and tough. The others don't do this" she asked.

"as I said, don't ask. He's a Spartan 4, a code black even to our little squad. He was loaned to us temporarily for a year, as we were doing front line reconnaissance and demolitions strikes. He's a ghost's shadow when it comes to that stuff" Archerson said, staring off at the Spartan as he sat down typing at a computer.

"hmm… sorry to ask then" Shion said before looking at Mirie, who nodded and all three women walked towards the door.

"I'll tell you one thing though. He puts his morals and code of honor above all else. He's a noble knight at heart, that's for sure. To serve and protect" Archerson said behind them, giving them one piece of info.

"thank you" Shion said, smiling.

"no problem. Just don't ask anymore ok?" the Captain asked before looking at them.

"alright" Shion nodded before turning around again and going towards the elevator.

Shion, Mirie, and KOS-MOS entered the dining room where the whole crew was sitting around, talking and eating.

"hey, the main group finally just showed up! Hey, where's the big tank?" Mathews asked.

"he won't be joining us tonight, he said he has a lot to work on down below" Shion responded before sitting down in her booth, Mirie and KOS-MOS sitting next to her.

"eh, oh well, hey KOS-MOS, you can eat now right?" Mathews asked.

"yes I can, why do you ask?" she responded, curious.

"try this" he shoved a fork of something cooked and greasy right into her face as she backed up slightly from the move, wondering what he was pushing towards her.

"Mathews! That's no way to treat a lady!" Shion growled as KOS-MOS kept her distance.

"hey hey, I'm just offerin, don't take offense girlie! Try it, it's good!" he offered again as KOS-MOS sniffed it and took a small bite, chewed it, and swallowed. Everyone watched as she sat there, thinking as she swallowed.

"it is good, what was it?" she asked.

"my special recipe. You know how they say use all the parts of a lobster when you cook it? Well, you can eat the tail, the claws, and all that good stuff. Well, that green stuff? That was deep fried liver and brains!" Mathews told her, beaming with pride. Suddenly KOS-MOS felt ill at hearing this and looked startled. Shion jumped from her seat and helped KOS-MOS out of the room as they ran to the bathroom.

"what, what'd I say?" Mathews said as Magen shoved him, annoyed.

"smooth move x lax" Magen said as she got back to her chicken.

"hey hey, it was leftovers from that planet we hit while coming here, had to get rid of it or it'd stink up the fridge!" Mathews exclaimed, with everyone looking at him in annoyance.

"what?" he asked as they got back to eating, both KOS-MOS and Shion coming back.

"don't do that again to her, she's only been like this for a day and your playing pranks! Stop it!" Shion yelled at him.

"ok ok… sorry…" he said and pulled his hat slightly lower over his eyes. KOS-MOS sat down again as Mirie offered her a plate of normal chicken in a spiced sauce, in which she slowly picked at it.

"go on, try your creation, I had some, it's quite good" Mirie said smiling.

"- so anyway, I'm down there on the ground, plasma mortars are flying all around, and here Garrett shoots by my platoon, blazing away and running full blown on Xaras IV, just beating the snot out of the tanks in front of him" Michaels said, laughing.

"I swear, those bastards never expected that Spartan to suddenly become airborne from that well placed plasma grenade under that plate. It was awesome!" he yelled as he chugged down some root beer, Helden laughing at the whole idea.

"so, you knew who Garrett was before this whole mess?" Magen asked Michaels.

"um, no ma'am, I saw him when I was on medical leave from our squad. Had to help the wounded there. When we landed we were hit pretty bad, a lot of guys were messed up. He was dropped from what I heard on his 21st Birthday, behind enemy lines, blowing the snot out of the armored columns on his own" Michaels stopped laughing and felt a bit embarrassed telling this to his superior.

"seriously? They threw him behind enemy lines?" Helden asked.

"ya, it was incredible, pulled us out of the trenches, saved a bunch of squads as we retreated. He's a god damn hero" Michaels exclaimed as most of the ODSTs saluted with their glasses then drank.

"I just wish the brass would give a shit about throwing him that way. To them he's just a fucking wind up doll" Magen said, laying back in her booth.

"they show him more respect than you think corporal" Archerson said as he walked through the door.

"Captain on deck!" Magen said as all ODSTs suddenly jumped to their feet.

"At ease. Relax for a bit" he told them, and they all sat down again.

"come for some of the food Captain?" Shion asked.

"yes, I decided I would try some of this here woman's creation, if you wouldn't mind of course" Archerson sighed and smiled towards KOS-MOS.

"I do not mind, please, have some" she said, offering up a plate of the food.

"thank you" he said, and sat down on a stool, wolfing half of it down quickly.

"oh, that's right, we need to bring a plate down to Garrett" Shion said.

"I will do it. I will be right back" KOS-MOS said as she got up and prepared a plate of salad and the chicken, then went to the elevator. As she reached the bottom, and walked out, she heard a faint sound she knew all too well. A Hilbert effect was happening down the hallway, and she ran forward, carrying both plates with her. KOS-MOS ran into the second tier to see a small generator emitting Hilbert waves with the professor turning it on and off.

"I know, it's a very ingenious thing isn't it! I'm going to place this on my Erde Kaiser and make it more powerful than even KOS-MOS! What do you think mr…. mr… assistant number 13!" the professor said as he poked at the machine.

"um, professor, I don't think you should call the big armored Spartan that…especially when he isn't here.." Scott said next to him, before looking up at KOS-MOS and was about to speak again before closing his mouth, embarrassed, and quite literally, blushing. KOS-MOS walked downstairs and towards both men, holding two plates in her hands.

"ah, assistant number 3! Thank you so much for the food here, after all this work, I believe I have indeed worked up an appetite!" the professor said, grabbing both plates from her hands.

"um, these are not for… you…" she said softly, the professor digging in as Scott stood there, awkward.

"I don't quite think he heard you… by chance, who were they for? The Spartan?" Scott asked, hoping she would say him, a fantasy that he knew would never happen.

"yes, yes they were, I don't see him around though. Garrett? Are you here?" She asked to the air, wondering if he was behind the camp. No response.

"he said something about taking some data up to the bridge to Tony, and-" before Scott could finish his sentence alarms went off.

"what's that sound? We're near something? But how?" the professor asked.

"that's an incoming vessel alert!" Scott said as he looked towards the door. KOS-MOS ran upstairs quickly and got onto the Elevator, heading up and to the bridge. As she reached it, everyone was squished inside, the bridge not exactly built to hold everyone. Garrett leaned his back against the wall, his arms crossed against his chest.

"we have a gate in… but… that's not possible! Unless…" Jr. said as a gate opened, the Dammerung appearing slowly.

"we have an incoming message on channel 4!" Hammer said.

"put it through" Mathews said up in his command seat.

"hellooooOOOOooo!" a loud obnoxious female voice said over the channel before Miyuki's head appeared on screen.

"Miyuki! But how?!" Shion asked.

"what, you didn't think we'd see each other again? Come on girl! MOMO is a natural at this research stuff! Scientia and us, well, we made a new gate drive!" Miyuki beamed as MOMO came on screen.

"hi Shion! Hi everyone! So good to see you all again!… and some new faces!" she said beaming, not knowing what to say next.

"MOMO, it's good to see you too, how have you been? What's been happening?" Shion asked, smiling.

"well, it's been tough not seeing you guys for some time, 4 years is a long while, so after the gate drive was finished we decided to try and catch up… along with… whoever else was still around…" MOMO looked distraught.

"what do you mean?" Shion asked before multiple signals and warnings happened on Hammer's controls.

"Sir! We have multiple contacts appearing all over the place! It's a fleet! Wait, two fleets! Whoa! There's so many!" Hammer yelled as suddenly, before their very eyes, hundreds upon hundreds of ships gated in, all shapes and sizes, floating by them.

"Tony! Heads up! Gate in front of us!" Allen yelled from his seat as Tony moved the Elsa, a large frigate appearing and nearly ramming them.

"whoa… how many are there…" Jr. asked.

"it's like a mass exodus… all of them heading to Earth… there must be well over ten thousand ships out there…" Allen said almost in a whisper.

"that… is a lot of people…" Archerson said behind them.

"oh! I almost forgot! Helmer! He's alive!" Miyuki said, cheerful as always.

"he is? The old man survived the whole thing?" Jr. ran to the front, pushing by KOS-MOS.

"yup! But we'll talk about that later, there's so much to catch up on! Come on, we'll open docking bay two for ya, get inside quick!" Miyuki said before closing the channel as the Elsa weaved through the ships, moving towards the Dammerung.

"that ship… fucking assault carrier… gives me the screamin heebies…" Archerson said under his breath.

"a mobile city, battle station and research corporation. Vector's flagship, or I guess, Scientia's flagship now…" Shion said.

"we're docking in three, two, one" Tony said as they felt a clamp lock on.

"dock complete, we can leave through the hatch now" Hammer said as everyone filed out.

"Shion!" MOMO yelled as she ran to Shion, hugging her as they left the ship.

"hey MOMO! Wow, you've grown up so big! A full grown woman now!" she chuckled, looking MOMO over. Her body had definitely changed, and she had far longer pink hair, down to her waist, though still curly. She sported a long white jacket with a black research dress, and what stood out so much to her were the pair of black knee high boots.

"making a statement are we?" Shion asked.

"she's… in a rebellious way of thinking for her clothing style" Juli said behind her.

"Juli! How have you been? Where's Ziggy?" Shion asked.

"I'm right here" Ziggy said, walking down the path, sporting brand new armored legs. His old clumsy legs were replaced with state of the art realian combat implants, augmented obviously with a different paint scheme.

"ah, you're looking great! It's good to see you again! The whole team is here!" Shion said, before stopping and thinking.

"I mean…" Shion stood there, looking at the ground, suddenly depressed.

"don't worry Shion, you will see him again. Have faith" Mirie said behind her, putting her hand on Shion's Shoulders.

"wow! Whoa, whose… wha… that guy is… um, nice to… meet you?" Miyuki said behind them, in which everyone turned around to see her staring up at Garrett.

"oh! Sorry, Miyuki, this is… er… Garrett. Garrett, This is Miyuki" Shion introduced them.

"oh hello there Garrett! Nice to meet you!" Miyuki said, putting her hand out to shake. Garrett looked down and then up at Miyuki again, then shook her hand slowly.

"howdy" he said in a low voice.

"well, you sure collected a large amount of new friends Shion… heheh… heh… where'd you find this guy?" Miyuki tried whisper with her hand covering her mouth to Shion.

"Miyuki! That's not very nice! He's helped us quite a bit right now, least you could do is-" Shion tried to say.

"it's alright. I'm used to it ma'am" Garrett responded.

"if you don't mind, I'll stay on the Elsa sir, I would just draw unwanted attention onboard" Garrett asked Archerson.

"that won't be necessary, you do not need to be a prisoner on that ship sir" a voice said down the path.

"Helmer! You old bastard, how have you been?" Jr. said, running towards him.

"I'm fine really, thanks for askin, and it seems your in good health as well" Helmer said, walking up in a long trench coat.

"well then, now that we've all gotten back together, maybe we should go somewhere to talk?" Shion asked.

"oh sure! Um, wait… oh ya! That place! MOMO, let's take em to your apartment now!" Miyuki said clapping.

"um… my… but… it's not cleaned up… I don't think…" MOMO tried to stop her as she pulled her along.

"Don't be silly, we'll just call the limos and be right over there! Everyone, this way!" Miyuki dragged MOMO along as everyone followed, Garrett taking up the rear.

"alright, six people per limo, everyone in, every… oh dear…" Miyuki said sizing Garrett up as KOS-MOS was about to get inside.

"I won't fit" he said as he pointed towards the car.

"Ya… you won't…" Miyuki said sighing.

"oh no, there's no room for KOS-MOS either! Damn…" Miyuki said looking inside.

"it is alright" KOS-MOS said as she materialized the monobike next to the limo.

"ah, great! KOS-MOS can be our escort! But… that still leaves Garrett… unless… heehee, you wanna ride with KOS-MOS? Eh?" Miyuki said elbowing Garrett in the side, more bumping into his armor than doing anything.

"I have a ride as well" he responded, before materializing a warthog.

"wow! I mean… ok, that's… nice…" she said, staring at the big green armored half truck, half tank.

"um… about that gun on the back…" Miyuki pointed, thinking. The chain gun folded up and slid down, clamping onto the floor before a box covering was placed over it by Garrett, and he started the hog up. It roared to life over the small whine of KOS-MOS's bike, and he backed up behind everyone.

"alright! I think we're all set, we'll just…" and Captain Archerson got out of the limo.

"now what!" Miyuki got annoyed.

"I can't stand limos. I'm going with Garrett" he said, before leaping into the passenger's seat and buckling in.

"ok… ok… NOW we're set… let's go!" Miyuki said as she jumped in, and the limos moved out onto the street.

"so how has everyone been?" Miyuki asked as she saw KOS-MOS speed next to them, weaving in through multiple cars to keep alongside.

"pretty good, yourself? How have you and Togashi been getting along since we left?" Shion asked as she heard a YEEHAA! Come from next to them as the warthog roared on the other side, Archerson having fun as Garrett drove. The Big Tires of the warthog seemed out of place alongside the hovering limos, and people stared from their cars as he drove by, even more so than the woman on the bike weaving past them with her blue hair flailing.

"eh, well, Togashi, he's been pretty much hiding from me for a bit, always shy… I dunno why… hey! How have you and Allen been doing? Oh, whose the kid?" Miyuki said as she pointed at Kevin sitting in Shion's lap.

"It's been alright, everything has been swell… I think… Allen and I have a little boy now… Kevin, this is Miyuki, can you say hello?" Shion said as she held Kevin on her lap.

"hello" he said staring at the woman.

"aww he's so cute! I could just eat you up!" Miyuki said as she reached to pinch his cheeks.

"ahhh! No eating! No pinching cheeks!" he said covering his face and pulling away. Miyuki looked awkward and embarrassed as she pulled her hands back, Shion chuckling, Allen laughing.

"oh, I didn't mean it really, seriously! I'm nice! You could probably think of me as your… well…" Miyuki thought for a second.

"she's your auntie Miyuki Kevin, she's a nice person" Shion pulled his head out from hiding under her arm.

"aunt Muki?" Kevin said as Miyuki looked a bit weird hearing her name said wrong. Everyone laughed as she blinked.

"um… well… uh… my name is… not…" she tried to say as Kevin jumped from Shion's lap and stared out the window.

"wowie! That looks fun! I wanna ride like that! I wanna ride with auntie Cosmos!" Kevin said as he stared, KOS-MOS driving right next to the limo, staring forward.

"ah, she always gets the fun things… so Shion, er, you found her? Fixed her up pretty quick didn't you?" Miyuki asked.

"well… not really… it's hard to explain… let's just say that she's not a machine anymore, and shouldn't be treated as such" Shion said, staring out the window at her long lost friend. KOS-MOS turned at that moment and looked at her, and actually smiled, then turned back and revved her engine and shot forward in front of the limo, moving out of the way of a delivery truck.

The limos eventually came to a stop in front of an apartment complex as KOS-MOS leaned her bike on it's kickstand, Kevin ran up to her and asked for a ride.

"I do not think it would be safe, you would have to gain permission from your mother little Kevin" she said smiling down at him.

"I'm not little! Mommie! I wanna go on the bike when we go back! Please?" he asked behind him, putting on his best pouty face.

"I don't think it's ok, KOS-MOS knows how to drive that, and you could get hurt" Shion said.

"awww, but I wanna!" he stomped as he stood there, pouting.

"he will not be hurt, I would make sure of that Shion, trust me" KOS-MOS said.

"well… if it's alright with you… when we head back… I guess…" Shion said as he jumped up and down and hugged KOS-MOS.

At that moment, Garrett drove up, the big tires fishtailing around and parallel parking between two limos, the tires hitting the curve and rocking the LRV.

"whoa… never mind, I wanna ride in that!" Kevin said as he ran over to the warthog, touching the armor as Garrett got out.

"kid, no touching" Archerson said as he walked towards the rest of the group as Kevin stared at Garrett, no taller than his knee to the Spartan, as he walked by.

"I wanna be just like him when I grow up…" Kevin said as Garrett nodded toward everyone and they entered the complex, Kevin running up to Shion and holding her hand. The kid watched the huge soldier follow in the back, even behind KOS-MOS as he seemed to blend with the shadows, even though he wasn't intentionally hiding. For such a large man, he was somewhat difficult to keep track of.

"good evening madam Mizrahi! How are you doing tonight? Ah, but you have guests! Um, uh, the dining hall is… uh… um…" the apartment owner ran up to them and started speaking before he looked straight up at Garrett.

"I'm just gonna go to my home now Garsaun, have a nice a night" Momo said as she motioned for everyone to come with her to the elevator. Garsaun squeaked as Garrett walked by, nodding to the small man as everyone piled into the elevator… except him.

"I'll take the stairs. There's no room in there" Garrett said as he walked towards the stairway door, and walked through.

"ok, we'll see you up top. Floor 42, suite 14" Momo explained as he walked away.

"hey, watch where you put your hands buddy!" Miyuki yelped as Helden attempted to move his arm away from Wilson.

"sorry" Helden said as he backed up, and bumped right into KOS-MOS. She looked up and nodded slightly then looked forward, and Helden "accidentally" moved his hand again. Magen grabbed it before it could reach KOS-MOS's rear nether regions.

"don't even try it" Magen growled, and Helden blushed and stopped, embarrassed.

"we're here!" Momo said as the doors opened to find Garrett standing in front of the doors, leaning against the wall opposite of them.

"wow, you make it up those stairs quick man" Wilson said as everyone walked out of the lift while staring at him. Garrett followed behind again as they reached suite 14, and Momo stopped and prayed.

"it's… a little messy… I wasn't expecting to show anyone the place quite just yet…" Momo tried to apologize as she slid her keycard and opened the door. Everyone slowly walked in as they took in the size of the place. It was a two story penthouse, with her bedroom on top and bathroom, and a spiral staircase leading up to it. A sunken living room with a large screen trideo in the corner, along with huge warehouse windows paneling the wall facing out. The kitchen seemed slightly small, though the dining room had a 16 placement table. Three other rooms were in the corner, a computer room and terminal station, a guest bedroom and bathroom, and what looked like a library from outside the door.

"wow, this place Momo, it's fantastic!" Shion exclaimed as she walked around, everyone looking at things.

"eh… I guess… um… well.. Don't touch-" Momo tried to warn Shion as she opened a closet door and half a pile of dirty laundry fell down on top of her.

"that door…laundry day is tomorrow…" Momo squeaked out. Shion got up and pulled a pair of panties from her shoulders and some hosiery, along with a dress over her head.

"well, where should we sit young Momo?" Helmer asked.

"um, over in the living room, there should be enough… space… I think…" Momo thought for a second as everyone walked to the two sofas and four chairs. Garrett walked to the wall and leaned against it and crossed his arms as everyone waited for someone to speak.

"well, we're all finally together again, and with some new faces and friends to join the ride" Shion said as she looked at everyone.

"are we going somewhere?" Helden said as Wilson smacked him on the back of the head.

"think numb nut, we wanna get home we gotta scratch their back first, get the idea?" Wilson said.

"oh" Helden said sheepishly as everyone chuckled.

"alright, now, to get down to business" Helmer said as he put his hands together over his lap as everyone watched him.


	8. 411

Helmer began to explain the whole situation to the now much larger group.

"as you well know, most of the planets in the federation were annihilated in the flux wave emitted by Abel's Ark. However, since then, the remainder of humanity has regrouped together as we sought after lost ships, regained contact, and focused our efforts on helping rebuild the shattered galaxy we know as our home. The problem was, the information leaked out that the Elsa was pioneering its way towards Earth, and would pave the way for humanity to reclaim it's homeland. Many different governments have sent ships behind us with newer versions of the gate drive we've created, and most disagree with each other" Helmer told everyone.

"so all those ships, they're not federation? They're mixture fleets? This is gonna cause a huge problem…" Jr. said as he put his hand to his chin.

"that's correct. For the most part no hostilities have arisen in the trip, however, it is only a matter of time before someone pulls the trigger, and an all out war happens. Each faction wishes to be the first to land on Earth, to reclaim our homeworld for humanity. If any of the others try to, they'll open fire. This has caused quite a bit of strife and tension among the people who are caught in the middle, mainly, Juli Momo and Ziggy here. Miyuki and Doctus have been trying to control the situation, but it doesn't look good" Helmer said before rubbing his eyes.

"wait, why is Momo and Ziggy stuck in this? What's been happening?" Shion asked.

"Momo and Ziggy are icons of the new exploration, they helped design the new drive system, along with Miyuki of course. Each faction wants their backing in their move towards Earth, to finalize they are in the right. However, now that the Elsa has been found again, it would be even more influential if they gained the crew, and, also, Shion Uzuki and her android, KOS-MOS" Helmer explained.

"but KOS-MOS isn't an android anymore, and, I won't let them use me or her for any of their gains" Shion told him sternly.

"try as you might, you won't be able to stay out of the lime light this time. There has come about a make shift council among the factions to discuss things, and they would like to have a meeting with you and KOS-MOS and the rest of your crew. Each one wants at least one name on their side, if not all. Add in the fact one of them I would consider not mentally sound, and well-" Helmer tried to tell Shion.

"What do you mean mentally sound? Why would they place an insane person on the council leading an exile fleet of people towards Earth?" Shion asked.

"well, he isn't mentally unstable with anyone or anything per se, except, of course, KOS-MOS" Helmer told her.

"what? Why?" Shion asked, looking towards her friend.

"the man's name is Albert Vanburen, and from what I've been able to find out, he's been keeping tabs on the KOS-MOS project since it's initial creation. He placed the first request to gain her as a test bed for his planetary defense when he was a presidential consulate on Milido Prime. He's… obsessed with her… when it comes to KOS-MOS, the man is a lunatic, and some say, he's in love with her" Helmer told them. Shion gasped as KOS-MOS sat there, looking slightly worried.

"but, she's not some god damn love doll! She's a real human being with feelings now! He can't touch her! I won't let him!" Shion yelled out and stood up, not realizing she was among friends.

"Shion, calm down, he won't get his hands on her, and while I don't understand what you're saying about her being human, I don't really wanna know. She's directly attached to you in this discussion, meaning whatever you say, she can accept as well. However, this makes it difficult to destroy all connections to the orders and requests certain men have placed for the KOS-MOS project, or, should I say, the T-elos project" Helmer said.

"T-elos is dead. There's nothing to destroy anymore" Mirie said, then looked away from everyone as she realized she had spoken.

"regardless, the mass production of her was supposed to be happening, but since no one can find the blue prints anymore, they have settled for the old KOS-MOS project instead. They want her, and they'll do anything they can to take her, except for Albert. He wants her, and solely her, and doesn't want to make more of KOS-MOS in any way. He wants her to be unique" Helmer told them.

"that bastard isn't gonna touch my friend…" Shion growled as she hugged KOS-MOS instinctively.

"they want to have a meeting, within one week, to discuss matters of landing on Earth, as well as any information you've found along the way. A summit complex has been cleared in the downtown areas of the ship, that is where the meeting will happen. Security is being done by what's left of the Kukai Foundation, so they are on our side. Will you accept?" Helmer asked.

"what? Your insane! No I won't accept! I'm not even going to talk to these people! Earth is for everyone to share, our hopes, our dreams, are going to be allowed to be reborn on that planet, to start new lives, and fix what we may lose in the future. We're here to look forwards for something new, not fight over my friend like some love struck boys! And we shouldn't even be fighting each other with the gnosis still down below!" Shion yelled out.

"gnosis? There are still gnosis here?" Helmer asked.

"ya, a whole slew of them, they're all over the place, we can't land without an army popping up" Jr. said.

"hmmm, this does present a problem…" Helmer sighed.

"so no, we won't go! They'll just have to fight over who says what till they're all dead! I won't stand for it! I-" Shion continued ranting.

"Shion" KOS-MOS asked.

"what is it KOS-MOS?" Shion stopped mid sentence and looked towards her.

"we need to go. We need to stop the fighting, or everything we have fought to protect will be in vane. Mirie did not let me have control for nothing, she knew I would strive to stop what we were going to do. Humanity cannot continue on it's current path or you will simply destroy each other. We must move on, forwards, and to do that we must at least try and unify what little of the human race we have left" KOS-MOS said softly.

"huh, good luck on that one kiddo, you'll find we're hard headed and always have some alternate agenda on our minds… damned rebels…" Archerson cursed behind them.

"that may be, but Captain, should we at least not try? The only thing we can do is fail right now, and try again. If war will come, then war will come, at least we have exhausted all options. Talk will hurt nothing" KOS-MOS turned and said to him.

"Spartans were around to squash that kind of shit…" Archerson tried to say under his breath.

"what? Spartans? What about them?" Shion asked, as most of them looked towards Garrett still leaning.

"I mean… uh… damn it…" Archerson swore.

"tell us" Shion sternly said.

"Don't order me around little girlie! I won't have it!" He growled.

"The Spartans weren't originally Anti Covenant soldiers like everyone thought they were" Magen suddenly said.

"what?" Shion asked.

"when we fought the alien collective known as the Covenant, the Spartans were not on the front lines. Originally they were rebel insurgent suppression devices. By leaking information that the UNSC had an army of super soldiers to destroy any offensive a rebel base could muster, the insurgents quickly doused and disappeared before even a shot was fired due to a sense of retaliation. They were meant as a scare tactic. An invincible soldier that couldn't be killed sent to destroy a hostile base blah blah blah, everyone would stop fighting and surrender, Spartans go home. It would stop this kind of mess you guys have here…" Archerson said as he rubbed his crew cut.

"so, Garrett, he's, he's a rebel stomper?" Jr. asked.

"Yes Jr., Garrett is trained in rebel infiltration and counter insurgency techniques yada yada yada. Problem is I doubt it would work here, what with we don't know what the state of flux your government is in, even with multiple factions, it would take weeks to figure a command line structure as we never had this latice work of planets you guys have on this starmap" Archerson said as he made a motion of the hand towards an old starmap Momo had pinned to the wall of the old federation.

"but they don't know we have him…" Magen said.

"what? What are you talking about?" Archerson asked.

"think about it, how many times have people gawked when they see him walk by? How many people mumble when he moves? What if we made it slip they have something really nasty pitted against them if they try anything funny?" Magen said.

"hmm… I just said it might not work… but oh well… couldn't hurt… Helmer, put us on the security force list, we'll work our thing on our side" Archerson asked.

"consider it done, of course, if Shion agrees to go" Helmer said as everyone looked at Shion.

"I don't… I can't stand these people… perverts… bastards… warmongers… every one of them…" Shion said mostly to herself. KOS-MOS put her arms around her shoulders and hugged her from behind.

"it will be alright Shion, everything will be fine. Do not worry" Shion accepted the hug and finally nodded.

"we'll do it" she said as Garrett suddenly stopped leaning.

"we have company" Garrett suddenly said as he suddenly sprinted to the door and slid to the side, waiting to pounce.

"housekeeping!" was heard on the other side.

"oh my, it's Melinda, the housekeeping maid… um… what should I do?" Momo asked.

"uh… let her… in?" Allen said.

"come in Melinda!" Momo yelled towards the door as a keycard slid and the young realian pushed her small hovercart through the door, her bronze eyes taking in the group sitting in the living room.

"oh my, I'm so sorry Momo, I didn't mean to intrude, I thought I would clean up today instead of tomorrow. You said you wanted some help, and well…" she tried to back up and found herself blocked by something. She looked up and stared at nothing as she noticed the offending blockade was gone.

"odd, I could have sworn… I-" Melinda tried to explain.

"Melinda, could you come back tomorrow? Sorry this is so sudden, I just need to talk to some old friends" Momo asked.

"I will at that, no worries then? I shall leave you to talk with your guests, sorry for intruding" Melinda bowed carefully.

"it's ok Melinda, you didn't do anything wrong, I just didn't expect you today. See you tomorrow. Have a good day alright?" Momo said smiling.

"thank you Momo, I will, you as well" Melinda bowed again and pulled her cart back through the door, this time the blockade was gone. As the door closed, Garrett decloaked.

"nice one Garrett" Magen smirked.

"she ran into me, I didn't block her" Garrett responded as he pointed down at the floor where he stood, which, still happened to be on the side of the door. He hadn't moved.

"anyways, we should catch up, I'll go make some coffee, we shouldn't think about any of this right now, that will be tomorrow, right now we should be catching up. I'll go make some coffee" Momo said as she got up from her chair.

"Momo, your so grown up! Just like Jr. heehee" Shion laughed out as Momo got up and looked over her shoulder, then blinked and looked at Jr. who blushed. Momo blushed as well and then walked to the kitchen. Jr. fidgeted.

"oh come on, go help her, I know the coffee grounds are in the top shelf of the cabinet" Miyuki winked and nudged Jr. as he moved away, still fidgeting.

"I'd, uh, get in the way, she can probably handle it herself" Jr. said.

"oh no she can't, trust me, she'll burn the grounds, go help her!" she said as she shoved him up and pushed him towards the kitchen.

"hey! Lay off! I… oh hey, I uh, Momo, I was wondering, ya, need any help?" Jr. said as he entered the kitchen.

"well, uh, sort of…" Momo said as she stood on a stool and reached towards the top of the shelf, and slipped and fell backwards as Jr. caught her. Their eyes met, and they stared at one another for a long pause of silence.

Suddenly Momo saw a few heads poking around the corner of the kitchen door and got out of Jr's hands and thanked him, blushing beet red. Jr. blushed as well and scratched the back of his head.

"ooh, looks like sparks are flying! Can't wait til they actually get on their first date!" Miyuki said excitedly.

"ah, young love… can't say I don't miss it…" Archerson said as he pulled out a photo of his wife and daughter from his pocket, smudged and dirty on the sides, but still visible.

"that your family sir?" Magen asked.

"yes it is, and I hope to see them again soon, once we're finished here. Got any of your own Corporal?" Archerson asked behind the group.

"a fiance sir. Marriage is four months from now… I hope…" she said playing with the small ring in her pocket.

"congratulations then Corporal, I hope it goes well, and it will. We'll be back before you know it" Archerson said.

"yes sir. We will" Magen said as she looked up, and over Archerson's shoulder, made out the blue goggles Garrett was wearing.

"got any family to go home to Garrett?" Magen asked. Garrett was silent, then walked back to the couches and leaned against the wall. The whole group was silent.

"A Spartan's family is the UNSC… try not to ask that question again Corporal…" Archerson sighed.

"I'm… sorry sir. I didn't mean to… Garrett, I'm…" Magen tried to apologize before Garrett waved it aside, telling her to stop.

"quit while your behind Corporal, your just digging a deeper hole. Don't worry about it, he's ok with the idea. Trust me, I know" Archerson said as half the group looked at the lone soldier in the corner, either thinking or performing guard duty, no one could tell.

"does a Spartan have a family besides the military? They cannot simply be soldiers can they?" KOS-MOS suddenly asked and everyone turned towards her.

"the thing is, most Spartans in the past are taken early on in their life, when their six or seven years old, then trained as soldiers and genetically altered and cybernetically enhanced. They never really know their real mother or father" Archerson said as KOS-MOS stared at the black armor in the corner.

"how cruel… and they experimented on him…" KOS-MOS said, feeling sympathy towards the seven foot soldier.

"hey, he's ok with it. Stop thinking about it and realize he's perfectly fine with his strength, that most men dream of being as powerful as he is, relied on to do a job, more valuable than a whole fleet of starships. The Admiralty are in a sense his grandparents, the Marines and Navy his Brothers and Sisters, and Scientists his Mother and Father. Wait, what's her name again? Dr. Halsey?" Archerson said.

"yup, supposedly she worked on the Spartan IIs when they were created, god knows how she's lived this long, must be over 100 years old by now…" Magen said.

"I heard the experiments were extremely painful…" Michaels said as Wilson nudged him to shut up.

"Garrett…" KOS-MOS whispered as Garrett stood in the corner, half blending with the shadows half lit by the synthetic sun outside, armor eating away at the light.

Garrett's head suddenly cocked quickly and looked around wildly, and everyone was startled as he walked forward a few steps before pressing his fingers to the right side of his helmet.

"CAPTAIN!" he yelled as he swapped through thousands of frequencies to keep a lock.

"what? What's going on?" Archerson ran forward.

"I have a fragmented connection with UNSC, Flagship _Marathon._ I can't keep a lock" Garrett responded as he tried hard to clear the static out.

"where, what, how are they doing it? Did they take over the portal? Is there a way back?!" Archerson asked.

"I'll patch through what I can" Garrett said as he fed the info into a portable data pad before handing it to the Captain.

"What's it say?" Shion asked over his Shoulder as everyone crowded around.

(VERIFY, UNSC ODST SQUADRON 105TH THROUGH 127TH, UNSC DATE 11/04/2668, TIME COORDINATE 1146:52 HOURS. FEED DATA.

PORTAL SECURITY COMPROMISED, RESEARCH ZONE ON RED ALERT. COVENANT INBOUND. REPEAT. COVENANT INBOUND. PRIMARY ODST SQUADRON KIA. AI TRANSFER COMPLETE. REQUEST DOWNLOAD ASAP. COMBAT IMMINENT. REPEAT, COMBAT IMMINENT. LINK CUT. DATA CORRUPT. REBOOT LINK?)

Archerson was stunned. His squad was KIA. Haverson was dead, Maven killed, everyone was gone.

Archerson fell to his knees as Garrett tried to track any hostiles down below.

"sir, an AI is downloaded to the Ark's main control systems, I can't bypass. We're going to have some problems in the future" Garrett told him.

"shut up! Just, shut up…" the grizzled soldier said as he sat there, everyone watching. Garrett stood silent.

"sir, with all due respect, I don't quite think the Covenant got through without a large fight on their-" Magen tried to say before Archerson suddenly stood up and punched her.

"hey! Don't do that to her!" Shion yelled as Magen doubled over from the blow and coughed.

"sir get a grip!" Helden said as Archerson stood watching his own fist curled, then looked down at Magen coughing from the hard hit, trying to get some air back in her lungs.

Archerson stormed out of the room and outside the door, and leaned against the wall, away from everyone else.

"I can't believe it… they're all dead…" Wilson said as he helped Magen get up.

"I'm sorry for all of your losses, I know this must be hard for all of you…" Mirie tried to say.

"don't! just… don't…" Greys was about to yell, then seconded the motion and with a gesture of the hand told her to leave it alone. All of the marines sat silent on the couch as Garrett stood there. The others felt out of place, they didn't know how to respond to it. Even Shion, who had lost her brother, couldn't imagine what it was like losing an entire strike squadron, of thirteen men and women who were practically these soldier's best friends.

"I'll go get the Captain" Garrett said as he walked to the door and around the corner.

Everyone watched as they heard a small scuffle followed by a loud BANG! And a sliding sound. Archerson walked back inside with a large black bruise on his jaw as Garrett followed behind him, unscathed.

"Garrett… thanks for knocking some sense into me…" Archerson said as he stood there, tear marks drying on his cheeks.

"anytime sir" Garrett responded.

Momo came back carrying a few cups of coffee as she watched and stood there, Jr. holding a few more.

"are we good Corporal?" Archerson asked Magen. Magen slugged him, then rubbed her knuckles.

"now we are" Magen said in a low growl.

"heh… I guess I deserve that one…" Archerson said rubbing his jaw.

"no court martial right?" Magen asked.

"court martial for what, I tripped. Twice" Archerson smirked. Everything was fine again, for the most part.

"well, let's get to talking, we have a lot to catch up on" Shion said and sighed, taking a cup and sitting down.


	9. Diplomatic Immunity

For the most part the conversation went well. Miyuki told about her romance with Togashi in which he'd been avoiding her for a bit after practically going steady, as well as the research plans for the gate drive. Momo had been occupied with keeping reconfiguring Vector and combining it with Scientia to continue the company's work, though under a new banner. For the most part, however, the marines and Spartan were left to their own devices while the old friends talked.

"got any good games on this console here Momo?" Wilson asked.

"well, I haven't had much time to play it, but Miyuki gave it to me as a gift. I think Cubix is somewhat of a nice game" she said smiling.

"Cubix? Wha?" Wilson said before looking at Greys.

"don't ask, but… any first person shooters?" Greys asked.

"I… don't really like those kind of games…" Momo said looking sheepish.

"you don't like capping something in the head… Wilson, can you rig the thing to work with this?" Greys asked as he pulled out a data disc.

"hey, where'd you get that? That's… whoa! You have that?!" Wilson said as he took it out hf Grey's hand.

"yup. Battlefield 9042, in tri-d and surround. Dunno if it'll work on that thing though" he said thumbing towards the console nearby the tv.

"I'll see what I can do" Wilson said as he turned the thing on, the small prompt of "welcome" appearing before he pulled out his small mainframe and started typing away at code.

"hey! What are you guys doing to that? Please don't break it, that's Momo's!" Miyuki said as the small group looked over at the marines playing with the entertainment center. Within a few minutes, the console was reprogrammed to handle more graphics than an encephalon dive unit, and smoothly as well.

"think it'll work?" Greys asked.

"only one way to find out. Plug it in" he said as Greys placed the disc into the machine. The marines stared at the little machine as it whirred and made noise, then a long pause, then finally started up and started playing the game.

"yes! Nice one Will!" Greys exclaimed as he got a pat on the back.

"alright, multiplayer, arena, who wants a piece of me?" Greys asked as Helden joined in with them, as well as Michaels.

"I'll pass thank you" Magen said as Archerson talked with Garrett in the corner.

"sir, I believe we might have a way of blocking the gnosis from even taking advantage of our given situation, but we'll need to gain a foothold inside the Ark for any of it to work. That may take a few more days to figure out how to do" Garrett said.

"hmmm, I see what you mean, blocking their sensory output to hear whatever that warble is could stonewall these bastards, but the Ark? Some sort of tech in there that might help?" The Captain said as he rubbed his chin, stubble growing by the minute.

"I'm fluent in most forerunner technology so far found, and one of the objects of interest was a high resonance pulse emitter, used on most reactors. It allows the energy emitted to be almost radioed to other parts of the center, allowing certain places with no reactor or room to place the transition connections to have power. What do you think?" Garrett asked.

"it's a fine idea, we'd just have to get our hands on it. Until then, don't let the others know about the crazy plan ok? Letting them know about a theorized inhibitor that may or may not work might not be the best thing to tell them right now" Archerson said.

"understood. I'll keep it silent" Garrett responded.

"god damn! That was cold blooded you asshole!" Michaels yelled laughing as Greys came around the corner and rifle butted his character's head in.

"that's just bullshit, he's got the damned machine cannon!" Wilson said as Greys smiled and ran away.

"Garrett, wanna play? The damn yahoo has me wasted" Michaels said annoyed in his Texas accent as he handed up the controller.

"I'll pass, but thank you" Garrett waved the controller away as Michaels shrugged.

"alright, I guess we'll see you tomorrow then?" Shion suddenly said as the group got up from the dining table.

"ok, cya tomorrow then Shion!" Momo smiled.

"c'mon you apes, time to go" Archerson said as he walked towards the door.

"Shion, don't worry about anything happening, we'll stop anything that happens got it?" Archerson patted her on the shoulder as they walked down the hallway, then looked up at Garrett. Garrett simply nodded to both of them.

"thank you. Both of you" Shion said as she stared off towards KOS-MOS up front, just getting into the elevator.

"everyone will meet in two days correct? I'll inform the leaders then" Helmer said down the hall.

"very well, two days" Shion sighed.

"that's my que" Garrett said as he took a left and went down the stairs, everyone else going inside the lift. As they reached the bottom, they felt a small shake, and as the doors opened Garsaun came out, pale as a ghost as he stared at Garrett walking out of the stair doorway, a slight crack in the tiles on the ground. Garrett ducked under the doorframe and regrouped as they headed outside.

"can I momma? Please?" Kevin pleaded.

"well, if KOS-MOS says so, then I guess, maybe" Shion said.

"what? No, I wanna go in the big truck!" Kevin asked.

"no, no way, not a chance, I ain't watching the kid" Archerson said as Garrett turned the warthog on.

"well, then, I guess you can't go with them son, they don't have room for you" Allen asked.

"waaaahhhh! I wanna go in the truck! It's not fair!" Kevin began to cry.

"Garrett, help the kid out will you?" Magen asked.

"I'm driving, not escorting" Garrett responded.

"I will watch him, that is, if I would be allowed to be in the passenger seat" KOS-MOS stepped forward.

"but, that's my seat!" Archerson exclaimed.

"we only have two seats, besides the gunnery. How do you intend on sitting with Kevin?" Garrett asked KOS-MOS.

"he may sit on my lap" she said, then turned to Kevin, who was clapping his hands and smiling.

"wait, then where do I sit? Miyuki said not to have that gun up while we're here, and I ain't drivin KOS-MOS's damned bike. I hate two wheelin" Archerson grumbled.

"just get inside the limo this time, it's only one ride" Shion said.

"grrr, fine, Corporal, good luck keeping the runt inside the cab on the way back" Archerson said as he ruffled the kid's hair and got inside the limo. KOS-MOS sat down in the passenger side as Kevin jumped onto her lap, and she buckled the seat belt.

"let's go! Fast! Really fast!" Kevin said as he stared through the windshield, and Garrett sighed in his helmet and pulled out of his parking spot.

"fast! We gotta go fast!" Kevin yelled as KOS-MOS wrapped her arms around his waist, trying to keep him from jumping up and out of the seat.

"Kevin, you must stay still, please" KOS-MOS told him as she tried to make him sit again.

"but I don't wanna!" Kevin pouted as she held onto him. Garrett's right hand came down on his shoulder suddenly.

"sit. NOW" Garrett commanded, and Kevin was silent, then sat from the order. They came to a red light and sat there, watching another convoy of limos cross through, and Garrett's goggles suddenly went red, the psi eye happening in the corner of his mind, watching who was inside. Mostly standard political officials, but one warehouse truck behind the third limo was interesting, and had a sealed human sized casing in the back. He couldn't see inside, as suddenly Kevin poked at his goggles and they went back to blue, his attention diverted.

"wow, cool! I want a pair of those!" he squealed as he poked at his helmet, Garrett getting more and more disgruntled every moment. He was not some toy to be played with by some kid. Suddenly Kevin sat down again, flipped around and stared at KOS-MOS, poking at the two jewels on either side of her ears.

"what are those?" he asked.

"they are Hilbert amplifiers, they allow me to perform my original duties before I became human" she said.

"oh… what's a Hilbert amp… amp.. Ampifier?" he tried to say. She chuckled and tried to explain, but his attention suddenly changed to the wing armor on her shoulders.

"why are they poking out? Why are you wearing gloves?" he started asking all sorts of questions about her, and even poked at her collar. Garrett hit a bump accidentally and Kevin lost his balance on her lap, and before he could tip out the window Garrett's and KOS-MOS's arms both shot out at the same speed and latched onto his pants, his underwear showing almost at eye level to the woman.

Kevin giggled as he was pulled back in, and sneezed suddenly in KOS-MOS's face, she blinking quickly from the manuever as the boy apologized. Garrett reached into the glove compartment and moved aside the M8C to one side, and pulled out a pack of baby wipes.

"those are… huggies?" she asked quizzically.

"good for anything from cleaning rifles to napkins to an anticeptic cloth for wounds" he told her, still watching the road as he flipped on his turning signal light. She pulled one out and wiped her face with it, just as Garrett stopped the warthog in front of the Elsa.

"that wasn't so much fun…" Kevin grumbled as he got out, KOS-MOS following him as Garrett turned the truck off, and got out as well.

"so, you saw it going by us didn't you" Archerson suddenly asked Garrett. KOS-MOS turned around as she heard him, Shion wondering what he was referring to as well.

"heading towards a hotel in the east district, warehouse truck fourth in concert, loaded, unknown supplies, potentially weaponry, not registered as Kukai from what Helmer gave me of the IFF tags. Was that what you were talking about sir?" Garrett asked.

"yup. You know exactly what I'm thinking don't you?" Archerson smirked.

"yes sir. Overestimate them and consider them hostile during meeting. We'll set up accordingly" Garrett nodded as Archerson smiled.

"make sure if they get too close to our two lovely ladies to give them a warm welcome, understood?" Archerson said.

"understood" Garrett said as Archerson suddenly smiled towards both women then walked by them, nodding to both as Garrett went to the elevator, heading towards the base camp down below.

"um, hey! Where is everyone going?!" Miyuki asked.

"um, to bed? It's getting late and we have a lot to do in the morning once we see the council building" Shion said.

"duh! We have quarters made up for everyone already! I thought you all were just gonna pick up some cloths and get back in the limos! Get your butts back here!" Miyuki stomped.

Mirie walked slowly towards the women's quarters, her mind seemingly elsewhere.

"Mirie, are you ok?" Shion said as she walked up to her friend.

"I'm… fine… just a weird feeling… that is all… we may meet someone… someone that I gave the same to as KOS-MOS… but I do not know how…" Mirie whispered mostly to herself.

"someone? Who? Are you sure you are ok?" Shion said as Mirie smiled weakly.

"it is alright, it is probably nothing. Do not worry about me, we should… um… get some cloths for the quarters mayhap?" she asked.

"uh, ok, Miyuki, we'll be right there" Shion said confused as Miyuki tapped her foot waiting for everyone.

"wait, where are the marines?" Miyuki asked.

"they said they weren't coming, they don't really fit in with hotels" Allen said.

"oh, so they're staying on board?" Shion asked.

"yup, Archerson said they have a tactical plan in the morning, when we get to the consolate building" Allen said.

"oh, well, ok, I guess…" Shion said as they got back into the limos, KOS-MOS getting inside and staring out the window just as they were leaving. She caught sight of Garrett crouched on the top of the Elsa, cleaning a very odd looking green rifle with a power coil sitting next to him. On the side, she could make out the words "SPARTAN LASER: THOR 690GW" inscribed on the side.

------------------------------

2 days later

------------------------------

Shion stepped out of the limo and stared in disbelief at the huge crowd massed in front of the building. Signs and t-shirts were being worn and carried by most, all saying "Shion we love you!" and "KOS-MOS, you rule!" as she was being escorted towards the doors. KOS-MOS held onto her hand as they walked forward, the rest of the group trailing behind as hands reached out to shake theirs, people screaming for Shion to look at them. The marines and Spartan were nowhere to be seen, supposedly integrated into the security force and posted at different access points.

"all we have to do is speak for a bit, and everything will be ok, we'll be out of this soon enough ok KOS-MOS?" Shion tried to reassure her friend as KOS-MOS looked around, as now that she was human, was quite nervous. Mirie was right behind them, and even she was trying to keep an eye on everything happening.

"understood Shion" KOS-MOS said as they reached an intersection and the diplomats encountered them. Leering and smiles were seen by most of them as they watched KOS-MOS go by, one of them even making kissing motions towards her. She felt dirty as they undressed her with their eyes, but before they could actually get near her three people she felt relieved to see came up and escorted them forward, one, was seven feet tall, plowing the road and scaring the living shit out of the politicians nearby.

All of them reached a pair of large double doors that slowly opened to reveal a huge round table, with over forty seats, but for the most part not many of them would be used.

"wait outside here please" a kukai soldier said to the rest of the group as Shion and KOS-MOS and Mirie walked inside.

"What? We can't go with them?" Jr. asked.

"sorry sir, but it was only these three they wanted to see, along with Helmer" the soldier responded.

"it'll be ok… I'm sure… I hope…" Mirie said as she looked around, Garrett disappearing from the area.

"where's…?" she said softly, and Wilson nudged her.

"don't worry about it, we got things handled" he whispered to her and she nodded. The ladies entered and sat down, Helmer sitting next to them as small cameras floated around, watching them from news casters as the opposite door opened for the diplomats. Representative of the Salvator faction, Ordaris faction, the remnants of the pilgrim fleet, remnants of the federation, and U-TIC were all there, among some others, three private councilors, one now known as Albert, sat down.

"my my, she's even more beautiful in person" Albert whispered to an aid as KOS-MOS sat there, trying to keep professional.

"let's get to the job at hand shall we?" Helmer coughed as a judge entered into the room.

"what is the meaning of this? Why do we need someone of the judicial system here?" Albert exclaimed.

"he is here to authorize objections and counter objections and relevancy towards the meeting at hand and the words said. He will be keeping all of us civil. Now please, let us start" Helmer told them.

"very well. The meeting will now come to order. The first order of business is landing procedures. As we all know, most of us wish to land before the others, or all land at the same time, however, due to the amount of ships in current orbit, this is simply not possible, or being allowed by any side" the diplomat from the federation said.

"not allowed because you don't see us in the right! You want everyone to see the federation as still strong and powerful. You want to force your laws of organization upon all of us! The laws of god are on our side!" the diplomat from the pilgrimage fleet exclaimed.

"the one who abandoned us at that planet? Are you insane? We need to land and revaluate our current situation with the gnosis before anything else screws this up, and right now you are all slowing us down! Progress is not going to be made here by you people!" the U-TIC diplomat said.

"objection! One of us will be allowed to land our ships, and that will most likely be because we have the Elsa crew backing us up! So why don't we stop beating around the bush and have them speak, after all, we asked them to come here, and all we do is argue the same stuff!" A Private observer said.

"I would agree, but let's put some sense of order in here shall we? Let them speak in a line, let us hear what each says to our questions" Albert suddenly spoke. He was barely out of his teens, a very young looking man, wearing large glasses and a tweed brown dinner jacket. For the most part he was far from hansom, but he grinned towards KOS-MOS and cocked his eyebrow often towards her when she glanced towards him, making her feel uncomfortable.

"let's start with KOS-MOS" Albert finished.

"What? Are you a moron? She's an android, she couldn't possibly-" the federation diplomat tried to say.

"from recent events my reporters have been able to find out she is indeed flesh and blood" Albert grinned towards her, and the diplomats started to whisper amongst themselves, making KOS-MOS even more nervous.

"leave her alone! I will speak first!" Shion ordered as she stood up.

"she is not first in the line and everyone else would like to hear a few questions answered, if the judge will not object" Albert said smiling.

"but, she can't-" Shion tried to object.

"I'll allow it, then it will be your turn soon enough Mrs. Uzuki" the judge said, stroking his white beard.

"very well. Now then, Ms. KOS-MOS, does that acronym even attach to you anymore? Wouldn't you be more comfortable with a Kim? Or something else? A Moria? Maria maybe? How would you like it if I called you Maria?" Albert asked her.

"what does THAT have to do with anything?" the federation ambassador yelled.

"I am simply seeing if she feels uncomfortable with that name, considering all normal human beings hate being considered a machine, I would like to see if she has a name she would like to be called. I am simply trying to be respectful of her wants and needs, as would anyone else here would be called by their name. so, KOS-MOS, Maria?" Albert asked.

"my name is KOS-MOS, and I would wish for you to stop that line of questioning please" KOS-MOS stated sternly.

"oh, that is a shame, I'm quite sure you would like that name, being called that" Albert said coyly.

"objection!" Shion exclaimed.

"I take back those words, I apologize" Albert quickly said.

"please refrain from saying those things in the future Mr. Vanburen" the judge coughed.

"I understand. Now, Ms. KOS-MOS, when exactly did you become a human being? If I remember correctly, you were damaged almost to beyond repair after everything was said and done were you not? How is it that you have become flesh and blood like us?" Albert asked.

"it… was a gift, an Ether ability used in an unstable fashion, one that cannot be understood as per federation classification of Ether" KOS-MOS said.

"oh, a gift? I am well aware of what Ether is classified as by the federation my dear. Now then, this gift, did it make you fully human? Every part of you?" Albert smiled.

"I am" she said sternly.

"all internal organs? Are you able to reproduce, bare children, and mate like any other woman considered human?" Albert asked.

"objection! What is the relevance of this!" Shion yelled.

"yes, I would like to see where this is going as well Mr. Vanburen, you are tredding in very thin waters" the judge growled.

"I am simply trying to see the extent of her change compared to her original creation. She was nanites and armor before, now she would be considered like you and me. To change from a fully human created artificial being to have the same rights as anyone else is highly odd wouldn't you agree?" Albert said.

"a machine doesn't have rights, simply used by man and the lord towards working a grander design" the pilgrimage fleet ambassador said.

"ah, so we are all agreeing KOS-MOS cannot simply say she is human, she must be given the connection towards being human just like anyone else, a law abiding citizen. Therefore, she is still a machine is she not?" Albert said. The other diplomats nodded in agreement.

"she is what she is, just as a dog is a dog and a bird is a bird, you cannot deny her of that, to take away her natural rights and act like this towards her" Mirie suddenly spoke up.

"ah, and here we have the twin of said machine, or should we say triplet? But you are not a machine, mayhap the designer woman for her looks? I must say, they chose a very good design for her" Albert smiled. Mirie looked at him in disgust.

"what are you aiming at, Mr. Vanburen" Helmer suddenly said.

"what I am aiming at, Mr. Helmer, is that KOS-MOS, and her ilk, are in fact, property still, and therefore cannot be allowed to speak for this chamber. Also given the fact that she was originally created for defense against the gnosis, and since my original paperwork stated she would be subjucated to my control at a later date never came, she is under my command. Therefore, Shion does not have her speaking in her defense, as is more so KOS-MOS is speaking on my behalf" Albert smiled.

"you said that last time Mr. Vanburen, and you have yet to give up the documents stating you have ownership of her. She was scrapped for the T-elos project, and considering none of us could gain a T-elos combat android, we have all settled for having her. You will simply have to get in line to gain a newly produced KOS-MOS model" the federation ambassador sighed and rubbed his sinuses.

"ah, but here I have them, finally recovered from the damaged CAT testing grounds" Albert placed a disc on the table. Everyone started whispering.

"order! Order! Now then, let me see these documents" the judge said as he plugged them into the table and a visual appeared, one of writing stating as of that date, KOS-MOS was considered a commercial model and to be placed under control of Milido Prime's defense control network, leader of the Milido Prime government, Albert.

"no way, she isn't a robot! You can't do this!" Shion yelled.

"Mrs. Ridgeley, sit down!" the judge ordered, and Shion's eyes started to water. KOS-MOS stood there, downcast.

"so therefore, under the current assignment, my men will take her to the shuttle. However, everyone else will not exactly appreciate losing a potential attachment to their landings. Therefore, I would suggest, since Shion Uzuki was a federation citizen, that she be allowed to stay with the federation ambassador" Albert smiled.

"I never said I would go anywhere! Stop speaking for anyone else but yourself!" Shion screamed.

"Mrs. Ridgeley, one more outburst like that and you will have no voice to this meeting! Now calm yourself and speak professionally!" the judge said.

"but sir! He plans to take KOS-MOS away from me! From my friends! I can't let him do that! That bastard is going to hurt her!" Shion exclaimed.

"ah, she has become too attached to her creation it seems… a pity, some people value their machines more than human companionship nearby… me on the other hand, I would more value mutual cooperation, and the human side of things. I'm sure KOS-MOS will be quite happy where she will be after this, I assure you" Albert smiled devilishly.

"what?! What do we get out of this?! The federation clowns get something and we don't! this simply will not work, this meeting isn't exactly over yet Mr. Vanburen, we object to your claim on KOS-MOS as well!" the U-TIC diplomat said.

"oh you shouldn't, due in fact that your future claims to a retaliation towards a certain URTV's hostilities towards your group in the past has dampened things slightly. Why would you care about these three when that URTV is right outside? Have him put to rest the wrongs he has placed on your organization and side with you, I'm sure it would be most beneficial" Albert chuckled.

"hmmm…. That would be effective…" the U-TIC ambassador said before sitting down.

"this can't be! It's become an auctioning room! We can't let this happen! Please!" Shion yelled.

"that's it! Mrs. Shion Ridgeley, I am ordering you to be removed from this room! Guards!" the judge ordered as two men carried her out, KOS-MOS trying to stop them but blocked off by four federation soldiers citing control policy to her and her interference.

"KOS-MOS!" Shion yelled before the doors burst open and Garrett and Archerson walked in, Archerson wearing a business suit.

"release both those women! NOW!" Archerson roared as he slammed down a briefcase carrying documents in discs as well as data crystals.

"who the hell are you? Guards, remove these two men!" the judge ordered, and Archerson waved them away.

"we are by rule and law part of the security force and allowed entrance if emergency has arisen. An emergency has arisen" Archerson smiled.

"what? Where? Why aren't we being taken to safety?" Albert asked.

"because, the emergency is you are by law seizing UNSC property, not Vector machinery" Archerson smiled.

"what? How?!" Albert yelled.

"as the events unfolded, before KOS-MOS became flesh and blood, her repairs were done none other than by Corporal Spartan 003's automated repair bot, issued by the United Nations Space Corp, and was soon after dismantled by KOS-MOS's repair systems. Since previously to becoming a human being she used UNSC technology inside of her to bring her to functioning status, she is no longer Vector controlled, even though Vector had previously scrapped her, she is UNSC authorized equipment, and therefore by that right I give her as acting superior officer of the UNSC, free right and citizenry since she was previously attached to UNSC property. Now that she is a human being, she is a UNCF law abiding living creature, and has equal rights by all standards. You will now accept these laws as deemed fit by the Earth directorate, as you are all similar factions" Archerson said before breathing in deeply.

"you dare cite laws we know nothing about to us, and think we will accept them?!" Albert growled out.

"well, if you don't accept them, then technically speaking you are walking all over the rights of all the other faction's laws and diplomatic rules right here. Since there are about 10 different people here that you would be ignoring, I don't think that would be quite a good idea" Archerson said grinning.

"he is right, how would we know you wouldn't ignore our citizen's right to live or be equal? Or our religious beliefs?" the pilgrimage fleet ambassador said.

"here here!" the U-TIC diplomat said.

"this is an outrage! I own that woman right there! Come to me KOS-MOS! Now!" Albert yelled.

"she doesn't belong to you, if anything she belongs to Garrett as direct interference in right of using the repair bot as equipment parts. Since he has given me full command on this situation, in acquisition of said person he has deemed rights that she is a human being with feelings and emotions as all living creatures, and I enforce this to the letter. She has been given freedom to choose who she abides to, as per his request towards me to give UNCF coverage. You have no right to interfere in her personal wants or needs, only that she accept the laws of your faction if inside your territory. Since, we are in free space, you have no hold on her here" Archerson finished.

KOS-MOS looked up at Garrett, silent and unmoving. She smiled, and was about to thank him before Archerson continued.

"since of course a Spartan is of military enforcement and direct defense of UNCF territory, any hostile act towards Ms. KOS-MOS or said soldier brings full enactment of war towards given faction, and I seriously doubt you wanna tangle with this guy assholes" Archerson said before telling them to omit the last piece.

There was a long silence, followed by the judge reading through the claims shown.

"under the circumstances, he is right. You must accept that KOS-MOS is no longer a federation attachment in any way shape or form, she is a UNCF law abiding citizen, no longer considered a machine" the judge said, sighing.

"yes! Thank you!" Shion yelled in happiness as the guards let go of her and she ran and hugged KOS-MOS.

"wait a minute! Just wait a minute! Are you telling me this woman was originally property of this soldier, who gave her her freedom? You make it sound as if he is a slave owner! What kind of faction is the UNCF? Do you allow slavery where you come from?" Albert tried to interrupt.

"sir, slavery was abolished seven hundred years ago by our registered dates, and therefore since KOS-MOS must verbally state she is a UNCF citizen, cannot be held anywhere near that. You are a UNCF citizen aren't you KOS-MOS?" Archerson asked her and smiled while winking at her slightly.

"yes, I verbally acknowledge I am a UNCF citizen" she states and smiles.

"but wait! Shion is not!" Albert yelled.

"she can be if she requests a citizenry through me, due to the federation technically no longer being in full effect, she can discharge from that government and be directly connected to us, as also the rest of her associates as they have allied themselves and no longer accept the ruling fractured government you call "federation" " Archerson responded quite coolly. Albert was seething, and Archerson was having a field day showing off his law school training.

"then who does the Elsa abide to?" the other diplomats asked.

"by the current evidence I see, they are UNCF citizens. They are not connected to any of said factions inside this room. The meeting is adjurned" the judge said and slammed his gavel down on the table. Shion was very happy, and KOS-MOS smiled as Mirie sighed in relief. Garrett walked out of the room before KOS-MOS could stop him, and turned the corner. KOS-MOS broke away for a moment and ran outside, and stopped him.

"Garrett, I wanted to thank you, for helping me, for helping everyone. I appreciate what you've done for me" she said, and smiled.

"Happy to be of service. Welcome to the UNCF KOS-MOS" Garrett said, and saluted her, standing at attention. She laughed, although Garrett was being quite serious. She hugged him quickly, despite his height difference, even making Shion look at them in surprise, before pulling back, still smiling.

"ma'am?" Garrett asked confused.

"a show of my thanks" she said, looking up at his blue goggles.

"Garrett, we have a problem. Over here" Archerson motioned for him to come to where he was standing, away from Shion and KOS-MOS.

"if you'll excuse me" Garrett said and pulled away, not giving it another thought as he walked to his Captain. KOS-MOS stopped smiling, and stared after him. He didn't give the hug a second thought, simply accepted it and move on. A twinge of sadness was felt as she was ignored on that part, though he was a soldier to the fullest extent, and had multiple objectives to achieve since he was on the security force.

Both men walked up to the three ladies as Helmer tried to congratulate them.

"we have a problem" Archerson told them.

"what sort of problem?" Shion asked.

"Albert's fleet is moving towards Earth, and taking up positions at critical landing points and descension trajectories. Add on to the fact he's been whisked away to his shuttle and has already left, and you can see why we think it's gonna turn into violence. But that's not the half of it" Archerson sighed.

"what's the other half?" Mirie asked.

"Miyuki detected a space anomaly consistent with a gate drive on the outer reaches of the solar system, multiple positions, all stealthed immediately after gating in. we have no idea who they are, which faction their with or what their objectives are, but we can assume they are hostile as well" Archerson told them, looking around at each one.

"this is very unsettling…" Mirie said as they tried to think.

"I would suggest we get to the Dammerung's bridge and consult with Miyuki, then move to the Elsa and see what we can do" Helmer told them.

"right, let's go" Shion said as everyone walked to the doors, and exited. Cameras flashed as people screamed in applause, men pushing men and women giggling. One man jumped away from the guards stopping people from moving onto the walkway, and ran towards KOS-MOS before sliding on his knees.

"KOS-MOS! Marry me!" he exclaimed, pulling out a ring and pushing it towards her before the guards grabbed him and pulled him back, the rest of the crowd uproaring and pushing towards the small group.

"we need to move, now, it's not safe here" Garrett told them and helped everyone run to the limos. Another man broke away from the crowd and pulled a gun.

"Shion don't ignore me!" he yelled and fired, Garrett leaping in front of her and blocking the bullet with his shields, the reactive field pulsed and energized to show a bright yellow electrical aura around him. The mass of people screamed and rioted, running away in random directions, some attempting to fight.

"GO!" Garrett yelled and slammed his hand down on the roof of the limo before closing the door, letting the limo head off with the small group inside, Garrett left behind to contend with the large mass of people coming towards them.

"wait! What about Garrett?" Shion asked as the limo drove off quickly.

"he'll be fine, he'll regroup with us later. Right now we need to get to the bridge pronto" Archerson said as he undid his tie and threw it on the seat. KOS-MOS stared out the back window after the man as he pushed and slugged at some people before getting in the warthog parked behind and started it up, then pulled a pistol from the glove compartment and fired once into the sky, before the limo turned the corner.

"Garrett… be careful…" KOS-MOS softly said.


	10. Schism

Garrett roared around the corner in his warthog as he drove up a ramp with multiple security guards keeping people at bay as an Albatross sat on the platform, Magen and Helden loading the gear back on as Wilson started the transport up. The VTOL whined to life as Garrett parked the warthog and got out.

"Garrett, this is the captain what's your status?" Archerson said over a clip link on his ear.

"currently evacuating the area, grabbing our gear, and popping the DZ. Yours?" Garrett responded.

"heading down Elm street towards the bridge command base, however we have what looks like AMWSs running towards us, hostile, and owned by Albert to deter us. Guess he isn't gonna take KOS-MOS turning him down lightly" Archerson chuckled.

"understood. We'll intercept them then regroup. The Albatross is almost ready. Helden! Michaels! Mount up!" Garrett yelled out as both men looked at him and nodded, then jumped into the warthog.

"Pedal to the Metal!" Michaels yelled as Helden sat up in the passenger seat, a Spnkr 49 ready in hand.

"ready and willing sir!" Helden said with his Mexican accent as he gave a thumbs up. Garrett leapt back into the warthog and floored it down the ramp, gaining a bit of air before the wheels slammed down on the ground as they tore off to cut the AMWS squad from reaching the limos.

Garrett pulled the emergency brake and fishtailed around the corner as they headed parallel with Elms street.

"currently on highway 9, moving to cut them off, we almost have you on visual" Garrett said over the coms.

"what does he mean visual? Isn't he pretty far away?" Shion asked. Her words were answered as the warthog slammed through the railing wall and flew over the convoy of limos, slamming into the ground from twenty feet up before it skidded slightly and regained it's movement, before it turned and went down another street as the limos turned another direction.

"hey hey, try not to have too much fun out there you guys! This is an escort, not a gun and run!" Archerson yelled over the coms.

Garrett floored the gas pedal as the AMWS squad came into view, seven of them, all with assault rifles and rocket launchers attached to their shoulders. Michaels aimed the rail cannon on the back and fired, blasting the head off the lead mech. The first kill was theirs. They just had to finish the other six.

Rifle fire flew towards them as they fishtailed around a corner and headed down another street as the mechs chased after, firing wildly as the LRV swerved and cut corners to dodge the shells. Each round would have punched clean through the small vehicle, so Garrett had to use their mobility to keep from being taken out.

"head in there! Parking garage! It leads up! We'll have an easier time handling these bastards!" Michaels yelled as Garrett made a quick cut left, smashing through the control bar and shooting in, the guard yelling after them before jumping out of the way of the hostile mechs.

"how the hell did they get those things in here without the defense forces of the ship stopping them?" Helden asked.

"probably bribed a few to let them hold a small detachment, they were probably on patrol inside the ship to protect Albert when this whole shit pile happened" Michaels responded before firing 3 rounds towards another mech, knocking armor off the arms before a rocket flew towards them.

"Garrett! Scissor right!" Michaels yelled as Garrett did so, the big wheels having a difficult time catching a grip on the ground before gunning towards a ramp heading up. The rocket flew by and slammed into the wall, flames shooting from the explosion as they headed up the building.

"we're gonna run out of room to move soon!" Helden yelled as one mech tried to cut them off outside with a rocket flying through a wall opening, and Helden responded in turn with a lock on and an anti tank missile lancing out.

"Woo! Scratch one tin can!" Helden hollered as they went up another ramp, Michaels firing behind them.

"three more levels! We still got five of these Bendejos!" Helden said as Garrett flipped the warthog around with one deft roll of the wheel and went backwards as two mechs cleared the bottom ramp up. Both Michaels and Helden opened up as Garrett weaved and swerved back and forth as he headed towards the next ramp, both mechs exploding in balls of fire and shrapnel as the last three came up, shields on their arms.

"Keep firing you'll hit something!" Michaels yelled as they turned the ramp corner, reaching the top of the building and coming out on open rooftop.

"shit, we can't go any higher!" Michaels yelled as he fired a round, it punching into the shield of the lead mech before it returned fire, Garrett wheeling the warthog around the entrance and coming around behind them.

As the AMWS moved to follow, a quick slice from an unknown energy blade cut the head clean off, followed by a fairly high amount of chain gun fire hitting the next one in the chest, cutting through the armor quickly before the mech exploded. Garrett flipped the warthog around and stopped it, only to see a wisp of long white hair float around the corner and disappear. Someone just saved their asses, and didn't want to be seen.

Garrett checked his sensor display on his armor and detected an unstable IFF, similar to KOS-MOS. Ever since Mirie had made her flesh and blood, her life signs and registry on his HUD was difficult to keep track of, he had to hardkey her into the database to keep a lock on if she was in the vicinity, and even then she showed up as neutral, potentially friendly. This same sensor lock had just saved them, yet he knew perfectly clear that KOS-MOS was in a limo escaping the area.

"whoever that was, maybe a thanks would be liked, but we'll do it later, we still got one more" Michaels said behind Garrett as they aimed for the last mech coming up the ramp. The thing fired it's rocket pod wildly towards them as Garrett gunned the LRV in reverse, burning rubber as he backed up.

-----------------------------------------

Meanwhile

------------------------------------------

"where did they go?" Shion asked as she looked out each window to watch for the warthog.

"probably decoying the squad coming to handle the convoy, don't worry about them, they'll be fine" Archerson told her as he checked the com listing.

"she's… awake… I don't know how… but… she's onboard…" Mirie whispered as the limo convoy came to a stop, before gunning it and heading down a ramp towards a highway. The ramp was suddenly cut off as an AMWS landed in front of them, and they diverted down an unfinished ramp area, then up over the highway. The convoy came to a halt as security guards jumped out of their trucks to protect the limos, firing as two more AMWS landed and opened fire on the surroundings, the convoy trapped.

"we gotta get out of here" Archerson said as Jr. leapt out of the limo, pulling both his pistols and firing at a nearby mech as the guards opened up. KOS-MOS leapt out and ran towards one, leapt, and fired her blaster rapidly as it's armor melted quickly, the last two rounds puncturing in and killing the pilot.

She landed only to find a second mech try and grab her, before she backflipped and tried to make her arm into her R blade. It didn't work. Instead, a golden bright light surrounded her arm, in the form of a blade, and she cut clean through the arm of the mech before it pulled back away.

"crap, another squad landing! Head's up!" Archerson yelled as he threw a plasma grenade, it sticking to the leg of the third mech and blew the foot off, the pilot trying to bail out as the mech fell backwards, before being cut to pieces by the security forces.

A second squad landed, as did a third, as ten AMWS walked towards them, killing half of the security.

"we're outnumbered! Damn it!" Jr. yelled as a lucky round from his pistol pierced the eye of one of the mechs, sending it tumbling to the ground. KOS-MOS called on her chain gun and opened up, the bullets doing mostly external armor damage before two brought up shields and walked in front.

"we don't have enough firepower!" Shion yelled as she fired her MWS.

"KOS-MOS, come to me" Mirie said as she started to channel what power she had into her hands, and KOS-MOS nodded. She stood in front of Mirie as the robed woman touched her back, and KOS-MOS gasped as her D-Teneritas began to condense over her chest, no longer requiring the transfer rods when she was a machine. The orb became much larger than she had previously done, and changed from blue to gold rapidly as she fired it, the round slamming into the ground and hitting every AMWS in the area. KOS-MOS pulled her knife from her boot and threw it, as Mirie threw her hands into the air as the knife pierced the sound barrier, hitting the bubble and destroying all the mechs.

"nice one!" Archerson said astonished as KOS-MOS retrieved her knife.

"oh no… another squad…" Jr. said sadly as a five man squad landed, this time with what looked like honor guard AMWS, fully equipped.

"I don't have enough strength for that again…" Mirie said as she fell to her knees, KOS-MOS backing up.

"KOS-MOS, can you?" Shion asked.

"I'm sorry, that took too much out of me, conventional weapons are my only alternative without Mirie to support me" she responded.

"then… I guess…" Shion said as she heard the lead mech order over loudspeakers "surrender, there is no escape."

Just as the lead mech aimed down at Shion when it stopped, the Albatross lifted up from it's spot below the unfinished ramp, the heavy VTOL equipped with four ARCHER XII missiles, and all of them arced lancing explosive death towards the squad, tearing it to pieces along with it's twin high explosive auto cannons.

"nice save Wilson" Magen patted him on the back as the VTOL landed, blowing wind and air around it as everyone watched and cheered.

"now, where's Garrett?" Magen asked just as the warthog smashed through the side of the building railing, landed on top of another building and kept going, before falling again towards the unfinished ramp nearby, the force of the landing rattling everyone in the vehicle as Garrett hit the emergency break and flipped the warthog, before driving in reverse as Michaels fired up. The mech was still not taken out, as it blocked most of the rounds with it's tower shield as it constantly returned fire.

"nice landing Garrett" Archerson said as Garrett brought the LRV to a stop in front of them before kicking out.

"Garrett, are you alr-" KOS-MOS tried to ask as Garrett ignored her, pulling a sniper rifle from the side carriage and propping it against the front of the warthog.

"um…" KOS-MOS tried to say before Archerson ran forward and grabbed a rifle.

"how many left?" Archerson asked.

"one, but he called reinforcements, I think it's the last squad" Garrett responded as he cocked the huge rifle, the sabot round inserting into the chamber. Garrett sat there, silent, as he tracked the mech flying over both buildings before landing on the ramp on the far side, before firing a thunder crack followed by a rocket and a rail round. All three pierced the mech, and the laws of physics bent the armor into a funnel shape out the back before it exploded in a ball of flame.

"clear?" Michaels asked.

"all clear. Last squad has been intercepted by security on com channel 4" Garrett said as he shouldered the sniper rifle, a low magnetic KLUNK heard from the armor.

"check for wounded, I'm hoping some of the security survived. How in the flying hell did they get that many inside this ship?" Archerson asked.

"planning" Magen responded as she checked the pulse of one of the security officers.

"heads up, I've got an unknown nearby" Garrett said as he suddenly crouched, everyone else suddenly becoming aware they were being watched.

"Mary…" a low voice was heard echoing.

"who the hell…" Michaels said as they aimed their rifles around.

"KOS-MOS… I cannot believe we all exist together… inexcusable.." the voice said.

"Garrett, you got a lock?" Archerson whispered as Garrett aimed around with the rifle.

"one" he said before a woman landed in front of them, twenty feet down the ramp, and stood up.

"what the fuck…" Greys said as he aimed his sniper rifle at her.

"please, do you really think that that weapon will have any effect on me?" the woman said.

"T-elos! how did she get onboard? how is she still alive?!" Shion gasped out as she stood there, white hair flowing backwards.

"that was probably the pod in the back of that truck Garrett saw, she was being held captive somehow, but you got me how you can keep her in there without her breaking out. Albert must have somehow caught her somewhere" Jr. said.

"hmmm... maybe my rounds won't normally work..." Greys responded before ejecting his clip and slamming in a red covered one.

"but this sure as hell will" he said with no emotion added, and aimed again.

"humph, you've obviously allied yourself with even more useless baggage… Mary, why did you do it? Why are KOS-MOS and I even still around?!" T-elos yelled as she took a step forward.

"I… cannot go by that name anymore T-elos. That name is of a person who no one here knows, and since then I have changed. my name is Mirie" Mirie said as she watched T-elos.

"so what, a name doesn't change who you are" T-elos smirked.

"maybe so, but that is not what has made me different now, and KOS-MOS, as well as you, are both no longer who or what you once were. You no longer can hold a grudge against us, as your previous allegiances have died" Mirie responded.

"do not tell me who my allegiances lie to fool! You who went against the only way to protect this universe! You have doomed us all!" T-elos yelled.

"there is another way… one that may benefit us all. There is still a way to save our universe, for peace. You would also be able to exist, T-elos" Mirie said.

"you expect me to just say it is alright after everything has happened? You are truly delusioned little prophet" T-elos growled.

"you have said it yourself, you wish to live. Considering that both you, KOS-MOS, and I, are of different souls now that you are living, why would you fight against a hope to continue doing so? To be yourself?" Mirie asked.

T-elos was in silence as everyone watched, three rifles aimed at her.

"I will not force you to come with us, I simply offer a chance to see what we fight for is right. You may leave at any time" Mirie said.

"whoa whoa whoa, you're gonna trust her? How do you know she won't kill us in our sleep?" Jr. asked.

"she won't, because she's curious as to how we will go about this. If I know how she will act, she will want to see this to the end. Her effort has died at Zarathustra. She has no connection to anything. She simply wants to survive. We can give her more than that, if she wants it" Mirie walked forward and offered her hand out, T-elos taking a step back.

"don't worry, you will not disappear, you are yourself now. You are welcome to join our group, T-elos" Mirie asked. T-elos looked down at her hand and thought over her options. She finally put her hand slowly, and placed it in Mirie's.

"we will all die before this plan of yours comes to fruition, and I will never see my hopes ever gained if you fail" T-elos said through gritted teeth, clearly angry.

"we will not fail. Trust me" Mirie smiled.

"drop your weapons boys, settle down" Magen finally said, a collective sigh of relief from the marines as T-elos and Mirie walked back to the group.

"you were the one who handled the two mechs on the rooftop" Garrett asked.

"and you were the one who can't dodge their fire at such close range" T-elos responded.

"hey, we could have handled it! Tell her Garrett" Michaels griped.

"she's right, we wouldn't have been able to maneuver up there" Helden said as he placed the rocket launcher in the passenger seat.

"try not to make it so common to save your pathetic hides in the future" T-elos smirked before walking towards the Albatross.

"we would have survived the fight, we can exit our vehicle at anytime, ma'am" Garrett responded.

"I was referring to the marines" she said before turning around and sizing Garrett up. Now that he was standing she clearly underestimated him, standing at seven feet tall and not a part of him unarmored, and she had no idea how he was outside of that vehicle in combat besides the round he fired at 900 yards towards the mech.

"hmmm… maybe not all of your baggage is useless…" T-elos whispered and stared up at the pair of blue goggles, and despite her not showing it, felt a twinge of fear at seeing his armored form.

"we should get to the bridge and figure out what's happening outside" Helmer said behind everyone.

"right, the med teams should be here any minute to help the wounded" Shion said as she climbed up into the back of the Albatross and took a seat, as did the others. KOS-MOS took a seat at the opening to the Albatross, as did Mirie, and T-elos sat on the opposite side, watching them.

"clip the cables and let's move!" Archerson yelled as Garrett helped mount the warthog on the back of the huge VTOL, before jumping up and grabbing a latch handle from the ceiling and clamping his boots down in front of KOS-MOS, staring out of the bay door. He gave the thumbs up to fly, and the armored transport lifted up from the ground and headed across the ship towards the bridge.

"I've got com chatter on three different channels sir, all of them heavy with combat" Wilson said over his shoulder as Archerson stared forward.

"I'm gonna hate myself for saying it, but lemme see what's going on" the captain said.

Wilson sighed and pressed the loud speakers inside the ship, as sounds of combat were heard from many of the ships.

"this is Alpha-Niner! We're hit! Blowing pod!" "this is the Chernobyl, we've taken heavy damage, we're just a transport ship! Please help us!" "federation cruiser Artanis coming to assist, sit tight Chernobyl" "we're hit! Decks 9-14 are destroyed!" "we need reinforcements!"

The captain turned the channel off as everyone looked downcast, the fleet tearing itself apart and at the same time separating itself into multiple groups.

"it's damned fucking chaos out there…" Magen said as she slammed her fist into the side of the ship.

"landing in three, two, one" Wilson said as the huge wheels flipped out from the bottom of the ship and clanked against the ground, Garrett the first to jump out and blow the latch controls for the warthog before sprinting towards the door to the elevator, Helden following as everyone clambered out.

"clear" Helden said as Garrett nodded and opened the door, sweeping the inside before everyone ran in, and he entered and closed the door.

The elevator rose to the top and everyone exited onto the bridge, the huge multi tiered room dwarfing even that of the Durandal, but circular, not spear shaped.

"we've lost the Northern Light! Two more frigates just went down!" a 100-series realian said as they furiously typed away at their keyboards.

"finally! You guys made it!" Miyuki said as she ran up to them, followed by Allen.

"ya, we got here as soon as we could, what's happening out there?" Shion said.

"well, for the most part, it doesn't look good. U-TIC and the pilgrimage fleet are unloading into anything they see while trying to forcibly land, anywhere, and Albert's fleet is causing havoc by making half of the fleet staying with us mark as hostile IFF tags as they try to take control of the city you were in. The Federation seems to be on our side however, which is good, as most of the ships aligned with us are just transports" Miyuki explained.

"wait a minute, how the hell did they find out we were in Mombassa?" Jr. asked.

"trajectory tracking, exit vector, datalogs and passage access and heat stress outside the Elsa, come on moron you should have this tech even at this day and age" Magen responded as he watched the view screen.

"hey shut your trap I was just asking!" Jr. yelled as he didn't like being insulted.

"well, regardless, they're setting of anti ship weapon systems and anti-air torpedoes, we can't follow them. We need to think up a plan, and soon. First, we need to save this fleet" Miyuki told everyone.

"if only we had the E.Ss available…" Shion said.

"we do" Momo told them.

"what?!" everyone gawked.

"we were able to find the parts of the destroyed E.Ss and rebuild them, with some of the old professor's blueprints left behind for the Erde Kaiser power plant. They won't act like they did with the animus relics inside of them, but they should still be better than any AMWS. We could at least help outside" Momo said as Wilson started to interject.

"uh, that's all good and all, big mechs on our side, but, from what I see, we got some narly looking boarding craft comin our way guys, and they seem to mean business."

"this is gonna take some effort then. We can't fight on two fronts" Miyuki said.

"leave that to us" Archerson responded.

"what? How?" Shion asked.

"we don't have mechs, which suits us just fine. Leave the ground pounding to us grunts inside the ship, go handle the outside. Marines!" Archerson barked and everyone saluted.

"suit up and rock and roll! Garrett, handle defense of the cargo bays, Wilson, Helden, reinforce the engineering, Magen, Greys, cover armories, make sure they can't gain anything to reinforce their offensive grid, Michaels, you're with me on bridge guard duty, keep em from breaching security here" Archerson ordered as all of them acknowledged.

"above all, give em hell for our namesake" Archerson smirked.

"sir! Yes sir!" the marines barked and left the bridge as Garrett surveyed the transports.

"what's wrong Garrett?" Archerson asked as he checked the view screen as well.

"wonder if they know any covenant tactics while they board" Garrett looked towards Archerson.

"you thinking Battle Cluster 42s break down is gonna happen here?" the captain asked.

"I think it would be a good idea to keep our mobility high in the event they do bring something on board" Garrett responded.

"understood. Keep me posted if they drop any presents for our welcome committee" Archerson said as both men walked to the bridge and went down.

"that leaves us" Shion said as Momo ushered them towards another elevator that headed to a special armory.

"wow, I can't believe you repaired all of them…" Jr. mumbled as they walked in, looking at the Asher, the Dinah, the Reuben, and the Zebulun.

"wait… we can only pilot three of them…" Shion suddenly said sadly as she looked at the wise Reuben.

"I will pilot it. Someone has to keep everyone from doing something stupid before I can even figure out what you intend to do afterwards" T-elos said as she walked towards the machine.

"no! that's my brother's! I won't let you!" Shion yelled at her.

"Shion, despite her harsh nature right now, she is trying to help us. Let her. It will do us no good to have no trust between either of us, someone must take the first step towards making the other feel more comfortable in the current state we are in" Mirie said behind her.

"alright… but I don't want to see any damage to it! You got that T-elos?" Shion said.

"as if those fools could ever touch me…" T-elos responded and leapt up to the cockpit and closed the hatch.

"KOS-MOS, let's go" Shion told the blue haired woman, and she nodded as both got inside Dinah and started it up. Errors crisscrossed over the tablet screens as they tried their best to alter the OS.

"Miyuki, we can't get her to start, the OS is problematic" Shion yelled down below.

"That's cause it's in testing mode, disable it and unlock the security cage" Miyuki yelled up.

"alright, trying it" Shion said as she typed in a flash of access codes. The cage uncoupled and the Dinah came to life, as did the Asher and the Zebulun.

"alright everyone, let's show these bastards they can't mess with us" Jr. said over the coms as they moved to the bay doors nearby.

"This is Captain Peterson of the F.S.S. Oredos, we're sending a small detachment of fighters and AMWS to escort you through the area, combat is heavy, good luck" a man said over com channel 7 to the Dinah.

"understood Captain, thank you for the assistance" she responded as she keyed in the IFF information of the Federation squadrons coming to help.

"time to see what the repairs have done. Captain Archerson, what's happening on your end?" Shion asked.

"Stand by, They're latched! Check your targets, watch the crossfire! Standard attack formation, humans up front, mechs in back. The instant they get through, let em have it!" the captain said on the other side.

"good luck Dinah, Archerson out" he finished before closing the com channel.

"KOS-MOS, let's go" Shion said as KOS-MOS nodded, the bay doors opening.

"come back safely" Mirie said down below as Miyuki watched next to her.


	11. Xtreme ZeroG

Garrett watched as the armoring on the wall was cut open as the guards around him aimed with their rifles.

"I've got contact on point 2-D!" one guard yelled nearby.

"second hole at point 6-C! next room!" a security officer said around the corner.

"third one! 2-A! heads up!" a close combat specialist said as he cocked his shotgun.

The wall fell down as Milido marines poured in, some of them cut down before they could exit, but more piled over and fired, killing a few guards instantly before they ducked behind cover and continued the fight.

Garrett became a sharp shooter as he systemically fired triple round bursts from his BR-55P Battle Rifle at the helmeted heads coming out of the hole, making them rethink the charge maneuver they were hoping would overwhelm the forces inside.

"AMWS! Heads up!" a guard yelled as he fired up, before being smashed into the ground by a huge mace, and Garrett flipped around and ran into the next room with a rocket launcher on shoulder and locked, firing one round before leaping up to the second tier railings and firing a second round at the next AMWS.

"we're being overrun in 2-A! we need backup!" one of the officers yelled as Garrett told them to fall back to the secondary cargo doors, and jumped straight at another AMWS, grappling it and smashing in it's cockpit before pulling the broken panels away and throwing a grenade in, and then jumping right as it exploded.

"we're sending AMWS squad 13 and 96 to cover you Garrett, hold on until then" Miyuki said over the coms as Garrett sprayed an SMG at an incoming AMWS, not to hurt it (lord knows it wouldn't) but to screw up it's lock on sensors and keep it from firing the very deadly looking laser on it's shoulder.

Garrett leapt behind a cargo box and somersaulted, slamming his shoulder into the side and taking cover as the AMWS sprayed death around him, a guard caught in the leg before pierced through the chest and falling.

"squad 4 is down, squad 8 and 7 are losing ground, we can't hold this position" Garrett reported as he checked squad vitals on his HUD, before scratching off certain names.

"that's terrible! Garrett, we'll come to help" Shion said as she and KOS-MOS battled outside.

"negative, the area isn't defensible in the first place. COVER ME!" he barked as he sprinted straight towards the opening of one of the boarding ship entrances, and primed an anti-matter satchel and threw it in, before running back and sliding across the ground as he rolled left, ducking behind another box as an AMWS tried to fire at him.

The Dammerung's soldiers got a lock on the AMWS with their own weaponry, and fired an anti-tank round from a shoulder rifle, and punched into the cockpit as two more came up behind it.

"damned war zone in parts of the ship… how's it looking at your end Magen?" Garrett asked.

"so far they can't punch a hole through our barricade, but these guys are bringing up the mechs to try their size on us. They're walking right into… PRIME FOR DETONATION! FIRE FOR EFFECT!" she yelled as the lotus anti-tank mines burst from the ground and exploded, ripping apart a whole squad of AMWS as the Scorpion MBT behind the barricades fired, punching clean through the next AMWS and slamming into the next one behind it, the depleted Uranium shell ignoring the armor.

"they're pulling back! We did it!" Magen cheered as the guards wooted and hollered behind her.

"are they running back to the boarding ships?" Archerson commed in.

"I don't think so, it looks like… no way… Greys! Check for explosives yesterday!" she ordered as Greys scanned the area.

"nothing, I got jack on the signal rings. We're clear" Greys responded.

"phew, then I guess they are just regrouping to hit us again" Magen sighed.

"heads up Shion!" Jr. yelled as Asher pushed the Dinah out of the way as a large beam flew from an incoming U-TIC cruiser.

"thanks Jr.!" Shion yelled as KOS-MOS looked frustrated.

"KOS-MOS, What's wrong?" Shion asked as the Dinah flipped around and fired a burst of lasers towards an incoming fighter.

"I don't have sensors anymore… I can't track everything that is moving anymore… I feel… handicapped…" she replied as she piloted the E.S, pushing it forward as a volley of missiles tried to hit them.

"hehe, don't worry KOS-MOS, you'll get used to this. You can still fight right? You aren't handicapped, you're human!" Shion said as she fired her beam rifle.

"I understand… I… I'll just have to fight like everyone else" KOS-MOS responded.

"don't worry, you still have faster reflexes than anyone else, and stronger. You're still my friend, and I know you'll pull through and adapt" Shion chuckled.

"understood. I… will do my best" KOS-MOS looked over her shoulder and smiled, Shion smiling in turn.

"now, let's see if we can't thin some of these fighters out and save some of these ships!" Shion yelled as the Dinah rushed forward, the Reuben cleaving down the side of the same cruiser who shot at them before bursting away, dodging missiles as it went before regrouping with the others.

"pathetic. They dare challenge me? This isn't even a real fight!" she yelled as she sliced an AMWS in half.

"no mercy!" Jr. yelled as he unloaded a flurry of rounds into a squad of fighters before they broke away, two of them destroyed.

"Jr., be more careful, we aren't invincible!" Allen said as he piloted the E.S.

"Allen, you're such a drain on my cool…" Jr. sighed.

"hey! That's not fair! It's the first time I've actually piloted this thing, I just want to be a little bit more safe ok?" Allen responded.

"ya ya.." Jr. mumbled as the Asher brought it's cannon to bare on a destroyer coming to attack them, and fired a single round that punched straight through the armor and depleted shields and flew out the other end.

"we've got two frigates attacking the Dammerung! The Oredos and the Miranda can't hold them off!" Momo suddenly said as she checked the status of the cruiser and the super battleship, already under heavy strain to keep the transports nearby safe.

"Momo! Ziggy! Look out!" Shion yelled as two fighters fired missiles at them, only to be intercepted by an aerosol grenade fired by a flanking Federation AMWS, before the AMWS retaliated and destroyed both fighters.

"thanks for the assistance!" Momo said as the AMWS saluted, only to be cut to pieces by the remaining fighter squad.

"no! damn it, die!" Jr. yelled as the AMWS floated majestically as the rounds punched into it, the left arm broke away as the mech exploded, the pilot unable to escape.

"no, he just saved us, I hate you! Leave us alone!" Momo yelled as all of her lightning pods popped from the armor to attack multiple targets, not doing as much damage as she wanted, but slowing them down and scattering three squads.

"Sergeant Mack is down! Sergeant Mack is down! Squad 9 regroup!" was heard over the coms as the party realized the AMWS was in charge of their escort.

"how many do we have left on our side?" Ziggy asked.

"counting the three AMWS still left in squad 9, we have six fighters still helping us, but they just gave a request to assist their respective mother ships."

"hmm, Shion, we should let them do what they can to defend their ships, we should clean up in this sector and protect the outer transports" Ziggy said.

"agreed. We'll let them go. Thank you for the help everyone" Shion said as the AMWS winked green lights in response before speeding away.

"running cause the fight is too hard for them… they aren't defending, they're cowards…" T-elos suddenly said.

"hey! That man just gave his life to protect us! And those pilots out there are trying to defend these people, despite the fact the federation is shattered, they still hold their ideals! Their humanity! You could at least show some of that towards them, show them some respect for their honor and bravery!" Shion responded.

"the day one of them saves my life is the day I will show any respect to them…" T-elos smirked.

"this is Corporal Spartan 003, boarding forces in cargo bay are neutralized, and yes, they did bring a present… or three…" Garrett said over com channel 7.

"a present? What present?" Shion asked.

"he means a bomb Shion, three of them. Did you disable them? How much time was left?" Archerson asked.

"two minutes. We caught them ahead of time. Status near the bridge?" Garrett asked.

"currently? Shitfire in a hell hole. We got wounded everywhere" Archerson sighed.

"is Miyuki ok? What about Mirie?" Shion asked.

"they're fine, they haven't broken through yet. Garrett, we could use a hand up here" Archerson asked.

"understood, be there in a minute. What should I do with the explosives sir?" Garrett asked.

"bring em up here, we could probably make use of them later. Exactly what do you mean in a minute? It'll take you a good twenty to make it through the ship to us" Archerson asked.

"hold that thought" Garrett said as KOS-MOS suddenly saw a decompression of an airlock near the cargo bays and Garrett floated out before shooting a tether line and arcing towards the secret armory doors.

"Garrett, what are you doing?" KOS-MOS asked.

"moving as fast as needed by the Captain" Garrett responded as he flew towards the doors like an armored missile, before a hostile AMWS shot towards him.

"Garrett! Incoming!" Momo yelled as he looked up and blocked just as it slammed it's rifle into him, he crashing into the hull of the ship before sliding a few inches to the left as the rifle tried to crush him again, before he smashed his fist into the arm and braking the armor.

The AMWS tried to pull back before Garrett leapt towards him and clamped onto the cockpit before punching in the armor, the pilot quite obviously screaming and trying to scrape the armored warrior off of him, before Garrett peeled the armor away and pulled the pilot halfway out, before snapping his neck and jumping off.

"whoa…" Jr. whistled as Garrett continued on his journey, as Jr. realized just how deadly Garrett really was when solo and not protecting anyone.

"inbound, sit tight" Garrett said as he locked his boots on the hull near the doors and waited.

"damn it! The operating system for the doors is malfunctioning! Try the manual out there Garrett" Miyuki said as she tried to key in the pass codes.

"no use. Hacking the system, popping it from the inside" he responded as the door locks wouldn't open.

"wait, hacking, hold on just a-" she tried to say before her panel suddenly read error, and multi flashed through thousands of control operations and download grids before a rewire was requested, and the pass codes were redone within the same minute.

"unbelievable. How did you do that so fast?" Miyuki asked.

"you only have nineteen digit 512 bit encryption codes. Child's play, even to Wilson" Garrett responded as Miyuki looked dumbfounded.

"haha, leave it to a Spartan to make a person feel inferior. Come on Garrett, cut them some slack" Magen chuckled over the coms.

"I apologize, insult was not intended. Entering now" Garrett said as the doors opened and he zipped in, before the doors closed again.

"Togashi! Later on we're making our pass codes the new twenty six digits!" Miyuki yelled behind her as the man leapt an inch before agreeing.

"I'm in" Garrett said as he headed up the elevator, before stepping onto the bridge, before putting his hand out and materializing the carried three charges he collected.

"nice work. We just gotta fend off this last couple of squads and we can handle-" Archerson said as multiple com channels opened up in a hail of chatter.

"we've got two huge contacts! Twin super battleships coming for a ramming course with the Dammerung! We can't hold them off! They're breaking through!" was heard as Garrett looked up.

"sir, I believe I'm needed more outside" Garrett said before picking up all three bombs and going back down the elevator.

"have some fun in the sun kiddo. Try not to get vaporized with those things too close to the ship you hear?" Archerson said.

"I'll do my best not to be vaporized period sir" Garrett smirked inside his helmet as he blew the hatch controls and floated out quickly, flying by the Dinah and towards an incoming Battleship, bomb in hand.

"is that strong enough to take out that ship Garrett?" Jr. asked.

"not really, unless I place it just right. Inside their engineering room" Garrett responded as the Dinah and Asher escorted him towards the ship, Garrett clamping his boots onto the front of Dinah as he surfed his way towards the oncoming menace. Beam fire and torpedoes lanced out at the party as they tried to get close before coming inside the weapons minimum range near the engines, as Asher and the Zebulun destroyed any hostile turrets.

KOS-MOS got a face full of armored Spartan butt in her view screen before Garrett detached and latched onto the first ship, and punched into the hull before pulling away a layer of the armor, before weaseling his way through the wiring and second layer of armor as he felt a huge decompression, he braking through a deck of the ship and flew back out.

The Dinah put it's hand out to help him get a grip on the hole he just made before he saluted and made a V over his armored helmet, a sign of a smile and thanks before entering inside.

"good luck Garrett!" Shion said as he blew the door away with a fragment grenade and entered the engineering decks, spraying wildly down the hallway with an SMG as he entered the reactor room.

"intruder alert! Intruder alert!" was heard blaring over the loudspeakers inside, and guards ran to intercept him as he cut them down, the small amounts of bullets they did get off not even noticeable on his flaring shields.

"package is being delivered, exit in 3, two, one" Garrett said as he placed the charges in such a way that it would destroy the right engine, sending the ship smashing into the second battleship nearby.

The armored soldier leapt out of the hole to be caught by Dinah, then they boosted away as Garrett's helmet extended three antennas from the right ear shielding port and winked once.

the inside of engineering blew, destroying the first engine and sending an overload towards the second, a quick burst of speed gained on the left side and turning the huge super ship towards it's comrade. The huge ship smashed head long into the other, smashing through it's hull and impaling through the other side as both started erupting into balls of flame and debris.

"we did it! Both ships are out of the fight! Nice going Garrett!" Momo said as Jr. cheered.

"this is the Magellan! We're losing orbit! The U-TIC blew our engines! We can't regain altitude!" a distress signal rung out as a transport ship started to slip into the atmosphere.

"we need to help that ship!" Momo said as the Dinah started to move towards it before checking it's movement.

"Shion, what's wrong?" Jr. asked as the Asher looked towards them.

"if we head in to help them, Garrett will get burned up in the atmosphere" Shion replied as she looked down at KOS-MOS.

"we can escort him back before we continue on" KOS-MOS said as she started moving towards the Dammerung.

"negative, they're losing height tack fast, they'll lose heat soak in a matter of seconds. My armor can survive it. Move in" Garrett said through coms. As a safety precaution he materialized his drop suit external package and clipped it on, as Dinah headed to try and help.

"so how do we get them out of orbit?" Jr. asked as he tried to maneuver near the huge ship.

"we don't, we skip them into a PFS re-entry, we need to nudge them" Garrett responded.

"a PFS entry?" Ziggy asked.

"Planted Forward Slide, or if you want the slang version, Pretty Fast Shitpile" Garrett answered.

"wha? Uh, but… um…" Momo looked embarrassed.

"it's called that in slang terms cause there will be debris breaking away from the ship, but it will at least survive enough for most of the people inside to survive a hard landing" Garrett said as his heat register told him they were getting close.

"alright, just a nudge" Shion said as KOS-MOS nodded and three E.Ss slowly altered the trajectory of the ship to a decent landing trajectory.

"oh no! we have anti-ship weaponry firing at them from below!" Momo yelled as small missiles started to be seen firing upwards.

"We can't stop those while we're trying to keep this ship from breaking up!" Jr. said as one missile flew by, a dumb fire.

"leave that to me" Garrett said as he braced against the Dinah and leapt off, throwing his arms straight in front of his helmet as he jumped, his shields flaring from the heat.

"Wait! Garrett!" Shion yelled as he blew backwards from the Dinah, not directly connected to their speed anymore before a tether line shot out and connected to the ship, superheating quickly as he snapped at the end like a rag doll, before pulling himself in as quickly as he could.

The line was getting incredibly hot, the tungsten covering slowly chipping away as he fired another to counter the first breaking, and finally landed his boots on the hull of the ship.

"wait, what are you going to do Garrett?" Momo asked as he materialized a Jackal Beam Rifle and aimed it carefully at an oncoming missile. He fired, the rifle not having a lead time and the super charged power coils shot a continuous beam, somewhat dispersed in the re-entry, but held together enough to blast the missile out of the sky.

"go Garrett! He's acting as a point defense system!" Jr. hollered and cheered as Garrett fired another tether line to the side and leapt off the hull, arced and landed on another piece and fire at three more missiles before running forward, keeping track of the hostile beacons coming towards them. He soon came under strain as he took out three more missiles before the rifle had to cool, the atmosphere not helping one bit and doubling the time as he materialized a second one, clipping the first to his back and letting his shields drop slightly from the heat dispensed as he saw twelve more beacons appear.

"this isn't gonna work if we have to defend as well as maneuver the ship" Jr. said as a missile slammed into the shoulder of Asher, rocking them from the explosion.

"last option, plan B" Garrett said as he ran to the front of the ship, standing at full length on the nose as he turned around and fiddled with something.

"Garrett! What are you doing?! There's too much heat at that point of entry!" Archerson tried to say through static.

Suddenly, a huge multi hexagonal shield erupted in front of the ship, taking most of the heat flare with it as Garrett plugged a shield generator into his external armor package.

"he's doing what you did KOS-MOS… but how…" Shion started saying.

"shields are dropping, core is overheating, I can't keep this up for much longer, Momo, time, now" Garrett said as his helmet rattled from the outside.

"one minute more! They're nearly through!" Momo said as Garrett suddenly got hit by a missile in the back.

"Garrett!" Shion yelled as he was pushed somewhat forward, losing his foothold before regaining his position.

"shields are failing, blowing emergency over shield" Garrett said as his shields flickered and died before a microsecond later his over shield clicked on, draining quickly, never made for atmospheric re-entry.

"almost there! Three more seconds!" Momo yelled as Garrett felt as well as heard his external armor groan and idiot lights go off inside his helmet.

"they're through!" Jr. yelled as Garrett leapt off, the over shield dying as he coiled himself in front of the heat shield on his back, trying as best he could to keep from the edges. Heat shielding chipped away from the back as the ship entered nearby and the E.Ss leapt off, the Dinah boosting to catch Garrett before he fell out of range.

"almost… got him" KOS-MOS said as she reached out the arms of the huge mech, desperately trying to grab at the falling warrior.

Garrett's armor was somewhat cooling from the heat it just went through as he reached out, steam rising from the paneling.

Suddenly, a piece of debris from the ship broke away and slammed into Garrett, knocking him past the Dinah before it could grab him, he trying to regain a smooth drop rate as he flailed his arms and legs to get away from the offending piece, and Dinah shot after him to try again.

"KOS-MOS! Duck! Quick!" Jr. yelled as KOS-MOS saw a second debris piece come from behind them, and smash into the Dinah. Warning lights went off as KOS-MOS tried to regain control of the mech, thrusters destroyed on the back.

"controls are damaged, sensors are malfunctioning, we're going in!" Shion yelled over cal chon sirens inside as Garrett fought with his debris, before gaining control of it and riding it like a surfboard through the air, his external armor package already damaged.

"brace for a hard landing Shion, I'll try to maneuver the Dinah into a soft zone" KOS-MOS said as she struggled with her controls, keeping the Dinah barely in a controllable descent as it headed towards what looked like Lake Turkana.

"brace in three, two one" KOS-MOS said as they hit the water, armor breaking away from the mech as both of them blew their harnesses and opened the cockpit, leaping out as Shion splashed into the water before surfacing.

Garrett struggled to keep on top of his piece of debris as he activated the manual controls to blow his parachutes, the crank slowly opening the armor panels before he found parts of the outside were fused. He struggled to reach the paneling and just as he opened it and let the parachutes fly out, he reached his maximum height limit for a safe descension.

Garrett looked below him as he saw Shion through magnification swimming towards the beach, but KOS-MOS was nowhere to be seen.

"KOS-MOS?… KOS-MOS!" Shion yelled out as she looked around in the water, no sign of the woman. Garrett blew his parachute and flew through the air, slamming hard into the lake as he dropped like a high altitude depth charge. KOS-MOS was sinking, flailing, but sinking.

_She doesn't know how to swim…_ Garrett thought as he boosted the hydraulic pressure throughout his suit, making him for the most part buoyant enough to swim, and dove towards her as the magnetic resonators on the outside of his armor tried to compensate for his heavy weight.

Shion looked around worried as no sign of either was above the water, before Garrett suddenly broke the surface, KOS-MOS grabbed around her chest in one arm as she coughed for breath, Garrett swimming hard and furiously to keep up with his weight.

"get to the beach, I got her" Garrett said as KOS-MOS slowly turned around and threw her arms around his neck as he kicked, her legs trying to help but only hitting his.

"KOS-MOS, let me swim, you're impeding me" Garrett said as she held on, slightly panicked as he swam.

They finally reached the beach as Shion fell to the ground, exhausted.

Garrett put KOS-MOS down and let her catch her breath on her side, as he noticed she looked ashamed.

"what's wrong, are you ok?" Garrett asked as Shion looked over from her spot and crawled to her friend.

"I… don't know how to swim… I never had to… before…" KOS-MOS looked disappointed as she stared at the sand near her cheek.

"you did weigh in over two hundred pounds… but I guess that was the reason we never programmed swimming into you before… I'm sorry KOS-MOS…" Shion said as she helped her friend up, KOS-MOS sitting up before looking up at the Spartan, already watching the surroundings with his rifle out.

"we need to get moving, this area won't be safe much longer. Clearing the crash site would be highly advised" Garrett said as he helped both women up, before walking forwards.

"where are we?" Shion asked as both followed.

"Lake Turkana, northwest corner of Kenya, we're pretty far from our original drop zone near Mombassa" Garrett responded.

"shouldn't we let off a distress beacon?" Shion asked.

"won't work. Hostiles would track it before friendlies would find us. We need to lay low and let the rest of the crew contact us. That's going to be difficult with almost no defensible cover to be seen" Garrett noted as he stared towards an endless stretch of arid land and desert, thorn brush and sparse trees.

"alright… I guess we start moving…" Shion said as they walked on.

-------------------------------------

Four hours later

-------------------------------------

"I apologize, but could we rest for a few minutes?" KOS-MOS suddenly asked as Shion and Garrett looked back. She looked tired, not at all used to feeling that way, always capable of moving with the Erde Kaiser Reactor she used to have inside of her.

"alright, we can stop here, though we are in the middle of the desert I warn you" Garrett said as KOS-MOS tried to sit, but realized the ground was too hot, and stood back up.

"here" Shion pulled off her jacket and laid it on the ground, before KOS-MOS thanked her and sat, tired.

"I'm… a bit thirsty…" KOS-MOS almost whispered, but Garrett heard it and sorted through his armory listing for a water bottle. What he found was a listing of water condensers, a mobile filtration system, a tanker truck, water purification pump and everything to clean half of Mexico's water supply before finally landing on two bottles of water. He materialized them and handed them to the ladies, who gratefully took them and drank eagerly.

"aren't you thirsty?" KOS-MOS asked as he stood there, a black silhouette against the harsh landscape.

"internal water supply in my helmet" he replied as he nudged his chin against a panel, a small chewable vitamin C tablet popping from a holder nearby as he took a sip from a water nipple.

"KOS-MOS, can't you summon your monobike?" Shion asked.

"unfortunately… no. I have tried, but something nearby is stopping me from doing so" KOS-MOS replied, ever so slightly embarrassed.

"that's odd… something… stopping you? I wonder what it could be. Garrett, can't you get a warthog out?" Shion asked the armored soldier.

"vehicle listings currently unavailable, the re-entry is causing a full diagnostic of my suit to repair the damaged shield emitters" Garrett replied, not telling them there was far more damage than they realized.

His hydraulics were caught in a taut hold around his left leg, to stop anymore pain. He could feel two muscles were ripped from the strain, and the internal bio foam modules were inoperative due to the heat. The repair systems would have to have some time before his leg would be healed, and even then it would wait until his right lung was healed, bruised and almost collapsed from the crash from so high above. He was hiding his ill health very well indeed. His cells were having a field day just trying to keep him from keeling over let alone repair themselves, as he continued to strain his body to push forward, not showing weakness and ignoring the pain from internal as well as external injury, some 2nd degree burns on certain parts of his skin.

"well, I guess we're walking then…" Shion said as she wiped sweat away from her forehead, and looked around.

"what's that smoke on the horizon…" Shion suddenly asked as she covered her eyes from the sun and stared out. Garrett was immediately in a crouch and aiming his rifle, hoping against hope it wasn't hostiles. His goggles couldn't be seen under the sun's glare, but they suddenly changed to red as his psi eye was concentrated on, and he saw what looked to be something that shouldn't be there. A village.


	12. Rebirth

Mirie gasped slightly as she looked towards a wall, no one else around her.

"he… couldn't be… he's alive. I have to see him… Yeshua… wait for me… we will see each other again soon…" she whispered to herself as she moved towards a window, staring out at Earth.

------------------------------------

Meanwhile

-----------------------------------

"are those… people?" Shion mumbled.

"by the looks of it, fourth century huts, though my timing could be off. Stone and wooden tools, population scans in as one hundred forty six life signs" Garrett rambled out. Shion laughed slightly.

"did I say something odd?" Garrett asked.

"no, you just reminded me of how KOS-MOS used to act" Shion said as she looked at her friend, who smiled and stared at the village.

"we should go around, it wouldn't be wise to interact with them" Garrett said as he started to move forward. A Spear suddenly impeded his progress.

The group flipped around to stand ten feet away from two hunters in animal skins, another spear in each hand, before they turned to find more of them, then more behind them where they were just staring. They were surrounded.

"bata um bada, sajee mahuma nad amiha bagu massa" one of the hunters yelled out at them.

"um… I don't understand what he-" Shion tried to say.

"gana adu mas adega gahuda. Banu bapa natu basamee" KOS-MOS suddenly said. The hunters looked at each other and lowered their weapons, wondering who she was.

"KOS-MOS, you speak their language?" Shion asked.

"before I became human, you did program a universal language listing into me remember? It's Kiswahili, a long lost African language that died out in the mid 32nd century" the blue haired woman replied.

"Kasu, ba abo gonai paku godo mas" Garrett suddenly spoke out of his helmet. Both women looked at him.

"Garrett, you know it too?!" Shion gawked.

"no, but my universal translator is trying to pick up on the language. In all honesty, I believe I just said I fish from the desert old cheese" Garrett said as the hunters started laughing, as did KOS-MOS giggle slightly.

"Shion, it has been a while. I knew you would show up" a man's voice came from behind a group of the hunters.

"that voice… it couldn't be… is it?" Shion took a step forward as a slight sign of white hair was seen behind the men.

"gabo gas nana" the man said as the hunters parted, and out he walked for Shion to see.

"it is, Chaos!" Shion yelled as she ran to him and hugged.

"it is good to see you again Shion. I trust your trip here has been in good health?" Chaos said as he smiled down at her in his arms.

"we missed you a lot! Now we have both you and KOS-MOS back!" Shion beamed as tears welled up in her eyes.

"please don't cry, this is a moment of happiness" Chaos said as he wiped away some of her tears from her eyes before looking up at KOS-MOS.

"ah, hello there KOS-MOS. It's good to see you again as well, as yourself this time" he said, smiling knowingly.

KOS-MOS felt odd looking at him, as before with Mary being her and yet not her, she felt she had to be with him at all times, the partner of the Messiah. Now that she was her own person, not a piece of someone else's life, she did not feel that way, a slight emptiness she wished was there again, but yet she didn't feel towards him.

"it will be good to have you as a friend from here on, KOS-MOS. Life has a good deal to give to you from here on out. You deserve it" Chaos said, smiling thoughtfully. His heart belonged to another as well, in which KOS-MOS softly smiled and nodded, not knowing what to say.

"ah, but you have made new friends while we were apart I see, one that I cannot understand. Hello, kind sir, would you be the one who has protected them since landing?" Chaos asked Garrett.

"oh! I almost forgot, Chaos, this is Garrett, Garrett, this is Chaos, an old friend" Shion introduced them as Chaos put his hand out for Garrett to shake. Garrett looked down at his hand as Chaos smiled up at him, before putting his own hand out and finishing the friendly ritual.

"it is a pleasure to meet you then, Garrett" Chaos said as the shake ended, and Garrett simply nodded.

"why are you here? How did you get to this village? Who are these people?" Shion asked.

"we have much to talk about, everyone, but we should get out of the sun, it will set soon, and it is not wise to be out of the village at dark. Come, the villagers will see you as honored guests" Chaos motioned for them to come with him as he walked towards the village. KOS-MOS and Shion followed before turning around and seeing Garrett staring behind them.

"something wrong Garrett?" Shion asked before Chaos turned to see what he was doing as well.

"nothing, don't worry about it" he said before putting his scan on standby and followed after.

"Garrett, you should rest when we get to the village" Chaos recommended.

"I'm fine, but thank you for the offer" Garrett replied.

"I doubt that you are. The others may not be able to tell, but you hide much pain right now. Let yourself heal, I can fetch the medicine man if you wish" Chaos said as both women looked up at Garrett in confusion.

"what? Garrett, are you ok?" Shion asked.

"nothing to worry about, I'm just a little bit beaten up, I'll be fine" he responded as Chaos smiled with his eyes closed.

"your breathing is labored and though you don't show it, your walking is difficult, and your skin hurts. Rest, we will clear a hut for you, do not worry. You will have complete privacy" Chaos offered.

"but… understood" Garrett finally said, realizing he would have to eventually take off certain armor panels to check his body's condition and apply any ointment to the skin burns.

"Garrett, if you're hurt, tell us, don't hide it from us in the future alright? I can't bear the idea you're hiding being in pain just to keep moving forward for us…" Shion said.

"I… understand. I'll notify you if I become wounded in the future" he said.

"ok" Shion smiled and patted him on the shoulder, in which he ever so slightly twitched, but it was still noticeable.

"oh no, I'm sorry! Did I touch a burn spot?" Shion became worried as he forced the pain out of his mind.

"no, it's alright" he said trying to calm her down as she panicked slightly.

"we're here" Chaos said as he waved towards the bustling village, fifty huts, three larger huts with one marked as the Chieftain's hut, the second marked as the medicine man's hut, and the third marked as the council hut. There was a large teepee in the middle, it's purpose unknown as yet.

"well, let's get out of the sun now. Basu mamasai go saturo jobaga" Chaos said as a man escorted Garrett to a nearby hut, before motioning the two women inside the chieftain's hut.

"where is Garrett going?" KOS-MOS asked.

"he will rest away from us, as I have offered. I believe he is a man who wishes to not be seen under his armor, and I give him the respect of privacy he wishes for. He will want to tend to his own wounds as well. Don't worry, you'll see him later" Chaos said as he motioned again towards the hut. KOS-MOS noticed that the same feeling she felt for Chaos when Mary and her were one… was building again.

She came back to her senses when she heard the hunter who escorted Garrett bark in laughter again, he most obviously said something stupid with his universal translator.

"please, rest here" Chaos offered, two pillows placed on the ground for both of them to rest on. Both were quite huge, and as Shion and KOS-MOS sat down, Chaos looked at them quizzically before chuckling.

"what's funny?" Shion asked.

"you don't sit on those, you sleep on those" Chaos said as Shion looked at him oddly before yawning.

"I guess I am a little tired…" Shion said sleepily.

"do not worry, we will speak later, please sleep until then. You may ask all your questions afterwards" Chaos said, nodding.

"alright. See you then, and thank you" she said, Chaos smiling.

"this home, is your home. Rest well" he said as she lay her head on the pillow, curled up. KOS-MOS looked at Chaos as she herself felt her body be weary, and as he was about to leave the hut, he looked down at her.

"sleep well KOS-MOS, this time you will awaken without anything to worry about" Chaos said as she nodded. He left, and she laid her head against her pillow, watching the flap animal door close, incense burning in the corner making her drousy as she drifted to dreamland.

----------------------------

Four hours later

----------------------------

"ok, where the hell did they land, go, and do?" Archerson said as they scanned the ground, ECM jammers building a concrete blocker signal in the upper area of Kenya.

"I don't know, but the ECCM countermeasures can't punch through the amount of interference they've placed in the area. They're effectively cut off from us until we can figure out where the crash site is" Miyuki sighed.

"can't we launched a search party?" Magen asked.

"not without the dropships being blown out of the sky. The anti ship weaponry is still down there shooting at anything that tries to land. And we can't take any of those out with orbital weaponry cause they'll down the orbital rounds we fire before they even hit, and we have no ground forces to neutralize them from below" Archerson replied.

"unbelievable, so we're stuck with our thumbs up our asses with no plan as we lose three people in one go…" Wilson grumbled.

"Maybe if KOS-MOS was not so witless she would have seen that debris piece fly away, but then again, that pathetic excuse for a human will never gain what she needs to be perceptive…" T-elos smirked against the wall, staring at the view screen scanning.

"can it trash, unless you have something to say that benefits us, we don't wanna hear your mouth speaking anything bad about her" Archerson growled, and she scowled at him.

"T-elos, you have bad feelings towards me, do not place them on someone who never did anything to cause you to speak ill of her" Mirie told her.

"pfft, whatever… dropping the blame on her as well as you works just as well" T-elos said as she turned her back to everyone and crossed her arms over her chest.

"that's it!" Wilson yelped out.

"what? What's it?" Archerson said as T-elos turned around, confused if Wilson was angry or talking about something else.

"what she just said!" Wilson said as he snapped his fingers with a smile.

"have you lost your mind? You want her to talk shit about KOS-MOS?" Magen looked at him as if he was crazy.

"no no no, the drop thing! We need to do a hard drop!" Wilson replied.

"we don't have any drop pods available dumb ass" Greys grumbled out.

"our replicators can probably create something for you according to your designs" Miyuki spoke up.

"then maybe we might be able to place ground troops on the planet after all" Ziggy said.

"it'll take some time to get the plans in order, but I think we can drop faster than the anti air can touch us, with a bit of effort of course" Wilson said as he started to type away at a keyboard.

"hmmm, it just might work. Get on… never mind, tell me when your finished" Archerson said as he already saw the initial designs start appearing on the screen.

-----------------------------

Meanwhile

----------------------------

KOS-MOS awoke to find Shion wasn't in the hut anymore, and looked around. The hut was empty, save for her.

She got up, her hair falling effortlessly to her back as she straightened her miniskirt, and exited the place as villagers looked at her as they walked by. Most of them were preparing for a feast of some kind, bringing vegetables and fruits and meats towards the huge teepee.

"excuse me, bato ama?" KOS-MOS asked a passing villager.

"gada udo?" the woman asked with a pot on her head.

"basa topo ma Shion Uzuki ramudusa?" KOS-MOS asked.

The woman pointed towards the teepee as she walked on, KOS-MOS staring up at the torches placed and the men painting their faces and gathering what looked like instruments.

KOS-MOS cautiously walked up the skin door as men pointed at her and smiled and laughed, some doing what looked like a very vulgar hip thrust towards her then shaking their hips, before turning around and stomping their feet. She felt embarrassed as they did this, and backed up slightly before bumping into a masked man who shook the mask around, scaring her slightly as she backed up again.

"atu sama!" Chaos suddenly said as KOS-MOS turned and walked right into him.

"it is alright, I am sorry if they scared you, they are preparing for the feast of rebirth" Chaos told her, smiling down.

"a feast? Is the dance part of the feast?" she pointed towards the men who did the hip thrusts towards her.

"oh! That, haha, it wasn't intended towards you, though you were the target to test it on. They are practicing for the dance of rebirth, in which the women of the village will do a similar dance towards them, it was not meant to do any harm" Chaos chuckled.

"ah, I see" KOS-MOS relaxed as Shion walked up, wearing her jacket tied around her waist with a few paint lines around her face.

"ah, I see Shion is enjoying this" Chaos said as she smiled.

"this village, everything you've told me about them, they are so lively now. The rebirth of them to humans again, it's hard to believe they were once gnosis!" Shion said as she saw two boys run by, stop at KOS-MOS and touch her hand before making weird faces towards her, before running off to play with their friends.

"why do they have an interest in me?" KOS-MOS asked.

"your hair is different, and your skin is much lighter than theirs. They believe you a princess of Batuo, the god of light. They expect your skin to be covered in paint that will come off if they touch you" Chaos chuckled.

"oh, but I am not" KOS-MOS said, looking around at everyone.

"do not worry, they will not harm you, if anything, they would protect you if they believe that" Chaos explained. A little girl walked up to KOS-MOS and offered up a flower tiara she made, and KOS-MOS kneeled down and thanked her before wearing it.

The little girl smiled and giggled before yelling and running off, "basa mameesa! Basa mameesa atu!" which KOS-MOS translated to _Princess of light accepted it! Princess of light accepted it!_

"by the way, where is Garrett?" Shion asked.

"he is still recovering in the hut, from what I have heard from the other villagers, he has not come out since he went in, and not seen anyone since then" Chaos pointed towards the hut with a closed animal skin over the front.

"could he be sleeping?" KOS-MOS asked.

"I doubt that, he does not seem to be the kind to sleep when new things happen. More than likely he is taking care of his wounds. I will check on him" Chaos said as he walked towards the hut, before a villager called to Chaos and bowed.

"ga bobosa natelu bas gada, me ulu tadasa felugoo do" she said as Chaos sighed.

"Shion, from what I hear, it seems your ring you left in the hut before you left has been taken by the children to play with" Chaos chuckled.

"oh no, I need my wedding ring! Chaos, can we get it back?" Shion asked.

"it will be no problem, come, we will get it back before the feast starts. KOS-MOS, would you like to come?" Chaos asked.

"shouldn't one of us check on Garrett?" she asked.

"if you wish, then do so, we shall see you in the teepee then" Chaos smiled and nodded before he and Shion walked off towards the children playing near a bon fire.

KOS-MOS walked up to the hut and was about to enter when she realized he wanted privacy, and patted the side of the hut.

"Garrett, are you in there?" she asked. No response.

"Garrett?" she asked again, peeking through the corner of the skin door to see half a man rubbing a cream on his arm, bad burns up and down it, before placing a bandage that sealed itself into a thin cast around his skin, before placing his armor back on. She never saw his face, his head blocked by a pot hanging from a rope to the ceiling, but from what she did see, he was very muscular, with two tattoos on his shoulder.

KOS-MOS tried to read the tattoos, one saying "SPARTAN" with a visored helmet and two swords crisscrossing, and the second was a barbed wire and rune writing wound around his arm, which looked to be greek. She peered at the writing for a second before reading "O xein angellein Lakedaimoniois hoti tede keimetha tois keinon rhemasi peithomenoi" which translated to "_Tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their laws we lie."_

"please hold for one second, I am getting dressed" Garrett said over his shoulder as she stopped peeking and stood there, looking down at the ground. After a few more minutes, she heard a clamp and a sealing sound of hissing air before the skin moved aside and Garrett walked out, fully armored again.

"where is Shion?" Garrett asked as the villagers stared at him, the ones who were moving stopped.

"they went to see the children playing to get her wedding ring back" KOS-MOS replied as Garrett started to walk forward, the villagers stopping playing music and moving baskets and just watched him walk by in awe.

Both Garrett and KOS-MOS eventually made it to where Shion was sitting, the children laughing and poking at something in her hand as she chuckled, a small flashlight held.

"oooh" most of them said as she pressed the button once, the light turning off, before pressing it again and the children jumped back, laughing

"ah, Garrett, it's good to see you came out for the feast" Chaos said as he smiled towards the two walking towards him.

"Rashere! Rashere!" a child pointed at Garrett as they all suddenly stood up, staring at him, before walking up to him, all reaching out to touch him.

"What are they doing?" Shion asked as KOS-MOS backed away slightly, watching.

"I've never heard them say that before. They called him "Reclaimer" though I don't know what that means" Chaos said shrugging, and watched as well, the children trying to touch his armor, some of them touching his hands, all in awe.

They were very delicate in touching him, running fingers softly against one armor panel before touching his glove, never touching anywhere that would be considered offending, and some poked at the lights on his armor, before trying to touch his armored face. They were not afraid of his blue goggles, more intrigued, as Garrett realized they were of no threat and just stood there, confused.

"I've never seen this before, I didn't expect it that is for certain, though I did expect how they would act to KOS-MOS" Chaos said as KOS-MOS stood by Shion and him, Garrett apart from them.

"why do they call him Reclaimer?" Shion asked.

"there are inscriptions in a cave nearby, an unknown language and a second one that is their language. I will show you them tomorrow if you wish" Chaos said.

"yes, please do, I want to know why they see him as such" Shion said before the medicine man walked slowly up to KOS-MOS, and the children stopped and watched him as he stared at her, old and wise.

"incredible, KOS-MOS, stand there, let him do what he came to do, he would not come from his hut unless the feast had started, and it hasn't. it is very important" Chaos said as everyone watched him pick up KOS-MOS's hand and run his gnarled finger softly across her glove, before pulling slowly on the fabric to move it away. She realized what he was doing and slid the glove off, showing her white skin before holding her hand palm up again.

He nodded smiling, then looked down at her hand and traced the lines and curves, touching between each finger, before turning her hand over and poking each one, and finally raising her ring finger up and nodded.

"I don't understand" Shion asked.

"something to do with what the medicine man has seen. He might have seen something to do with KOS-MOS in the future, some sort of dream with her in it, but what I cannot tell" Chaos whispered.

The Medicine man looked up, weathered and gray with his hood of beads and feathers on, and stared into KOS-MOS's red eyes, and smiled.

"Maku" he said, still smiling.

"what does Maku mean?" Shion asked.

"it means mother. I don't know why he would call her that, maybe something he has seen in her future" Chaos thought out loud to himself.

"maybe… I wonder if it's a sign of something to come" Shion said as the medicine man pulled out a satchel of paint beads and crushed them in his fingers, and pressed them to KOS-MOS's hand. The old man wrote certain symbols, a circle, a star, a line, and finished his writing softly, almost in a trance, before blowing on her hand, the paint dust swept away, her hand clean again.

He then moved away from her… and towards Garrett.

"Garrett, remain still ok?" Shion asked.

"understood" Garrett replied as he looked down at the hunched old man, seeing him attempt to pick up his heavy hand before trying to help. The man tried to take his armored glove off, but Garrett wouldn't help, and let him try. The man started to get slightly frustrated with the glove not moving, but Garrett wouldn't move.

"Garrett, maybe it's best you take the armor off" Shion said.

"why?" he asked.

"because it might be rude?" Shion said slightly annoyed.

"tanu… tanu…" the medicine man thought for a second before waving his hand in relief, giving up on his hand and looking up at his helmet, before sighing.

"ah…." he suddenly said and pulled more beads out in one hand, before reaching up at Garrett.

"you might want to kneel in front of him Garrett" Chaos asked.

"alright" he said as he kneeled, at eye level with the old man before he touched at his helmet.

"Garrett… maybe you should… never mind…" Shion said before stopping, and Garrett did the unthinkable as the medicine man tried to take his helmet off. He moved his hands to the side and rotated the suction cuff, and a hiss of air was heard as the medicine man just stood there, unphased as everyone else backed away.

Garrett removed his helmet, and revealed a somewhat hardened face. His crew cut was shorn close, his white skin seemed a bit odd but understandable, as the medicine man smiled and touched his face, Garrett closing his brown eyes. On his cheek was inscribed a small bar code, with the numbers 003 tattooed on top of it. He had three scars crossing his jaw line on the left side, and a slight cut over his right eyebrow healing from a fairly large gash before. From what KOS-MOS saw however, was a hansom face, albeit stern and hiding much.

The medicine man pressed his beads in his hands and crushed the dust, then rubbed the symbols on Garrett's forehead before putting his hand on Garrett's cheeks, Garrett opening his eyes.

He tried to concentrate on Garrett's eyes, but didn't see anything.

"what's wrong?" Shion asked.

"apparently, the medicine man can't see into Garrett's future" Chaos explained.

"is it because Garrett has psionics?" Shion asked.

"no, I do not believe that is the case, as Febronia was capable of seeing Jr's future, albeit he has less of a strength than Garrett does from what I can sense" Chaos said as he peered at Garrett kneeling, feeling his aura's strength and power.

"I believe it is because as you said, Garrett and his friends are from a parallel world, one that may not be governed by our paths of existence. They may have their own fates placed on them in their dimension, but here it is unknown, just as ours would not be told to us given the reverse" Chaos told her.

The medicine man finished, and Garrett placed his helmet back on before uttering a word of "daju" in which the medicine man smiled.

"daju?" Shion asked.

"he simply said sorry" Chaos explained as the medicine man started to walk away before turning again towards KOS-MOS. He peered at her in scrutiny for a few seconds before he gasped, his eyes went wide.

He started to mumble randomly as Chaos ran up to him, the medicine man pulling him close and whispering in his ear as tears flowed from his eyes before they darted towards Garrett then back to KOS-MOS.

"what's wrong?" Shion asked worriedly as the medicine man was carried to his hut.

"from what he told me, he saw a vision, through someone's eyes. they will see Garrett pierced by attacks before them, acting as a shield from attack" Chaos sadly said.

"Garrett… will die?" Shion said, almost choking on the words.

"it is unclear, he simply said Garrett will be harmed defending someone, of whom I do not know, nor does he" Chaos replied.

"that's terrible… poor Garrett…" Shion said as she saw the soldier stand up, his armor doing it's best to morph the shadows around him.

"isn't there anything we can do?" Shion asked.

"as all futures are uncertain, this one can be avoided depending on our actions, but he seemed quite sure this was set in stone, only time will tell" Chaos whispered.

"we'll just have to make sure that the reading will be false then" Shion sternly said.

A gong was heard nearby as the feast commenced.

"ah, it is time to go inside, let us go to the chieftain's table" Chaos said as he motioned with a wave of his hand towards the teepee. The group gathered and entered into the large building, villagers eating and talking as drums echoed and small mouth instruments played. The party sat down next to the chieftain who welcomed them with open arms, and hugged Chaos like he was his son.

"the chieftain is honored to meet you, and greets you as his friends as well" Chaos told them as the chieftain started to speak.

"tell him thank you for his kindness and letting us be here" Shion asked, and Chaos translated. The chieftain smiled and pulled Shion to him, pinched her cheeks, slapped both of her shoulders before barking a laugh and crushing her to his chest in a bear hug, she squeaking in the process. He eventually let go before looking at KOS-MOS, and did a sweeping bow before ripping a pure white tooth from a necklace he was wearing and motioning to her hair, weaving it into a lock hanging over her shoulder.

The chieftain finally came to Garrett, and instead of doing anything to him, his smile faded, and a stern face showed, before nodding to him, then Saluting the Spartan, as did his guards, and pounded his chest as a sign of respect.

"OOOH WHATCHOOO!" he yelled, as did all the men in the teepee echo in a roar, all in unison, to him.

"they hail you Garrett, as Lion brother, strength of the land" Chaos told him.

"I don't know how to respond to that" Garrett told him.

"you don't, it was a prayer in your name. I never expected that either" Chaos said as he looked around.

The chieftain motioned for them to sit, and both KOS-MOS and Shion knelt on the pillows placed for them, Garrett sitting cross legged on the ground as seemed customary for all men in the room.

The chieftain started speaking to Chaos about daily matters, of the food and meat, of the gardens being harvested and of the livestock, and of the weather in the area. KOS-MOS and Shion for the most part, were left out of the conversation, as was Garrett as he did a quick scan of his diagnostic, his armor still repairing most of it's internals. The auto repair unit built inside was slow, annoyingly slow, and Garrett would have to put in a report for it to be the first thing upgraded in the future marks past the M10.

"have you tried the soup KOS-MOS?" Shion asked as she dipped what seemed was some dried jerky into a pot of cooking beans and rice and other vegetables placed for her, before taking a bite with the spices rubbed into it.

"I haven't… is it good?" KOS-MOS asked as two women filled their cups with a strange wine, Garrett declining any in his cup as he sipped from the water nipple inside his helmet.

"hmm, that is strange…" Chaos suddenly said as he rubbed his chin.

"what is?" Shion asked.

"there have been reports from some of the hunters to the east that there have been other men sighted wearing strange clothing. Considering there are no other villages in that direction, I would imagine they are from the ships that had landed south of us" Chaos told her.

"wait, how far out were they? And did you say other villages?" Shion asked.

"quite far, they are not near enough to have any effect to us, but still, we have a watch going on outside of the village after everyone has gone to sleep. As for the other villages, yes, there are many across the world. All of the gnosis Mirie took into herself have been reborn human again, and are starting anew. They are primitive, but can learn very quickly as you can see from their tools here. Humanity's new life is blooming again, and with it's old kind coming to teach them, the future looks bright once we have finished what we came to do" Chaos said smiling.

"how far out was the patrol? You said not very near" Garrett asked.

"about a day's walk from here, why do you ask?" Chaos told him.

"Albert's men, they're hostile, probably in the process of fanning out to search for us" Garrett said.

"they aren't friendly? After everything that has happened, after everything humanity has been through, they still fight each other even now with so few of us left?" Chaos asked.

"it's sad isn't it? Just when we're so close, we're impeded by this maniac just cause of his crush on one woman…" Shion said as she patted KOS-MOS on her back, trying to comfort her if she felt worried.

"well, we should not worry about how they act tonight, we should celebrate as is right. Come, the dancing will soon start" Chaos said as everyone got up, the music outside getting lower as a bonfire was being made, larger and taller by more added wood.

Everyone watched as the men danced around the fire, doing their thrusts towards the women, some of them did it towards KOS-MOS and Shion, before the women came in, and they in turn did thrusts towards others, even towards the two ladies who were somewhat shocked.

Eventually, both KOS-MOS and Shion relaxed and enjoyed the music as the villagers had a good time, and praised life and the stars.

KOS-MOS clapped softly to the music and smiled as she watched the scene before catching a glimpse of Garrett talking to Chaos off a ways from the bonfire, before her smile faded. Chaos walked back to them as Garrett walked off into the night, pulling his rifle in the process.

"what's going on?" KOS-MOS asked him.

"he volunteered to help with the watch tonight, he's worried the soldiers out there will harm the village. It will be alright, there is nothing to fear, our hunters are quite good at warning everyone of danger" Chaos told her as he tried to turn her back to the celebration.

"I see…" KOS-MOS said.

"don't worry, he will be fine" Chaos said just as a man with a painted face ran up to KOS-MOS and grabbed her hands and pulled her into the circle of dancing, stomping around his feet as he was half crouched like an aggressive animal, before turning around and waving his hands as KOS-MOS didn't know what to do.

"come on KOS-MOS, just follow the circle and clap, that's all you gotta do" Shion yelled out as she laughed, she as well in the circle and skipping around the bonfire as everyone moved. Chaos went to the musicians and picked up a drum and started to bang on it to add even more music, and KOS-MOS started to move with the rhythm as she in turn skipped around the bonfire, before the music stopped and everyone fell to the ground in submission towards some god, all except Shion and KOS-MOS.

The villagers got up and started to clean as they talked amongst themselves, as KOS-MOS and Shion stood around confused.

"the feast has ended, now they go to rest until morning when the daily duties come again" Chaos explained as he walked up to them.

"hmm, well, after the dancing, I guess I'm a bit tired as well" Shion said slightly out of breath.

"the chieftain is spending the night in prayer at the medicine man's hut, you are welcome to stay in his offered home for the night" Chaos smiled.

"what do you say KOS-MOS? Take him up on his offer?" Shion asked.

"I… yes, thank you, I appreciate everything done for us" KOS-MOS nodded to Chaos.

"it was nothing, it is good to see both of you again, and you as yourself, KOS-MOS" Chaos said knowingly.

Chaos escorted both of them to the chieftain's hut before taking his leave and going to his own hut, before KOS-MOS looked out towards where Garrett disappeared.

"something wrong?" Shion asked.

"I'm… going to check on Garrett, I will be back later" KOS-MOS told her.

"alright, don't stay up too late, I'm sure he's fine" Shion said and rubbed her shoulder before laying down on her huge pillow.

KOS-MOS walked off towards a nearby tree, the darkness consuming all around past the torches in utter blackness, creeping shadow that seemed to want to swallow her whole.

"Garrett, are you here?" KOS-MOS asked as she heard slight movement and turned around, nothing seen.

Suddenly, Garrett turned on his goggles lighting under a camouflage netting and looked out at her near the tree, him crouching under it with his rifle at ease, scaring the life out of her.

"oh, there you are, scared me to death" she said in relief as she held her hand to her heart.

"I would say I'm sorry, but that was supposed to be the idea" Garrett responded before looking off towards the shadows.

"oh. So, you are helping the village I see" KOS-MOS said, looking off towards where he was looking, but definitely not capable of seeing with his range, with his armor amplifying his night vision and sensor control. All she saw was darkness and empty landscape. She brought her hand to her right arm and rested it, feeling uneasy.

"they need help until we leave the village, then they won't be in danger. They're helping us, and are completely unprepared for the weaponry a patrol would bring against them should they act hostile towards the soldiers. I'm taking watch tonight until we regroup with the others. You should get some rest" Garrett said as he watched the area.

"won't you be tired?" she asked him softly.

"I've stayed awake for 72 hours at a time, I'll survive" Garrett responded.

"even while you are healing? Won't that have an adverse effect on you?" she asked.

"I'll be fine" he said, straight and to the point.

A long silence broke out as KOS-MOS stood there, shifting slightly on her feet before sitting down on the dirt, her white armored stockings getting dust on her knees as she did so.

"you need rest, you shouldn't stay here" Garrett said turning his head towards her, the eery goggles locking onto the movement.

"I'm not staying, I'm just taking a seat for a bit. The Stars…" she said, trying to make up an excuse for whatever she was doing. What was she doing? She didn't know. She just felt she had to sit down there, to keep Garrett company. She felt butterflies in her stomach, something she had never felt before, and slightly light headed when she was near him. He, on the other hand, almost acted as if she was a liability…

"Stars?" he asked as she pointed up.

"it's so clear… they're beautiful…" she said as she shifted on her knees, before she slid slightly towards the tree, and put her back to the bark before realizing she was sitting on something metallic when she brought her legs to her side. Garrett moved his right leg and shifted, and peeled it out from under her as he altered the camo netting around him.

"oh, I'm sorry…" she said as he ignored it and continued watching, she feeling embarrassed as she didn't have sensors anymore to tell her his life signs placed his body parts at certain areas. Her spatial awareness to others would have to be learned eventually she thought, something new to her life as being human.

KOS-MOS stared up at the stars and watched them, some of them may not have even been stars, but ships moving.

Time past as she watched, her eyes slowly closing as she started to drift to sleep, before she heard noise and saw the black form near her move.

"something wrong?" she asked as she suddenly was wide awake, looking around.

"no, I've been sitting in that position for two hours, my leg was falling asleep" Garrett responded as he continued his vigil.

"oh…" she said, settling down again before shivering slightly. It was cold, the heat gone from the ground now as most of the torches outside were doused, and she realized she didn't have a blanket with her.

"you should go back to the hut, you said you were only staying here for a short time, you should get a good night's rest" he said as she realized it had been some time since she sat down.

"I… I'll go back then…" KOS-MOS said as she got up, her back aching slightly from her position she was in.

"have a good night then Garrett" KOS-MOS said nodding towards him.

"sleep well KOS-MOS" Garrett responded, not moving.

"thank you" she said smiling towards him before turning and leaving.

--------------------------

Meanwhile

---------------------------

"these are drop pods?" Miyuki asked, astonished at what she saw.

"man planting cargo lockers, yup" Wilson said beaming with pride at the large semi curved canisters he had lined up, all of them prepped for drop.

"so how do we use them?" Jr. asked.

"you don't. we do" Archerson said as he walked past him and checked the door controls, the lid hissing open.

"what are you talking about? We're all going down there!" Jr. said annoyed.

"we're doing the hard drop, you guys are escorting us in with the E.Ss and providing decoys" Archerson told them.

"huh? How?" Jr. asked.

"the countermeasures on board the pods won't be nearly enough to keep the missiles from dropping us, that means we need some sort of anti ground defensive force covering our asses so we can drop safely, get in, neutralize the missile ports and then let the dropships come down with some reinforcements. If you don't, we die, end of discussion" Archerson told him.

"so what do you need us to do?" Ziggy asked.

"simple, shell with impunity and fuck up their targeting" Magen said as she checked a diagnostic on her pod.

"are we ready?" Archerson asked.

"suited up, jack it up good to go" Greys said as he clamped his helmet on, the visor obscuring his face as the other ODSTs did the same.

"let's get loaded up" Archerson said as he put his helmet on and got his pod ready as they prepared to load the pods into the large cannon constructed to fire them down towards Earth.


	13. Hostage

"everyone ready?" Archerson asked as his pod slid onto the magnetic catapult line with the others.

"no, but let's do it anyways" Jr said as the marines held onto their harnesses.

"hey Captain, this is Miyuki, Wilson made enough pods for supply drops for ya as well, along with two more lines for some extras. We're gonna use the two lines for two other teams of security forces if that's alright with you" Miyuki said over a com channel.

"well, not like we'd ever get another chance in the future to use em. Wilson, why the fuck did you make excess?" Archerson asked.

"in the event we needed to retreat and try again sir?" Wilson squeaked out.

"mmm, good point. Alright then, let's rock and roll!" the captain yelled out as the catapult hurled all the pods out at the same time, like a giant missile launcher. Archerson hit the old cd player he had taped on the inside of his pod and played Steppinwolf's "magic carpet ride" all the way down as the marines cheered, all pods entering the atmosphere.

All E.Ss save the Dinah swarmed the pods along with two squadrons of fighters and three cruisers firing orbital rounds to drop the locks on the pods as they slipped in.

"we got a landing solution on the missile platforms, most of em anyways, three per zone, two zones per sector, three in all. Once we take them out it should be pretty easy to handle anything else thrown our way" Magen said.

"that's if they don't pull anything we don't know about, remember your training grunt" Archerson said over the music just as they broke through re-entry.

"heads up! Land in five! LZ is hot! Gut check time!" Archerson barked as the other pods in the federation marine's squads winked green.

Archerson heard snoring coming from Greys pod and yelled out just as the sniper woke up, the pods slamming into the ground and blowing their doors. The ODSTs were quick on their feet, far better than their federation counterparts as they rushed forward, zig zagging towards one platform as the music from the pod still played on.

"hostiles three o clock on primary tier, head em off Greys!" Magen yelled as three quick rounds pierced the air, followed by three blips on her helmets hud disappearing and a sound of an ejecting clip come from their sniper. Greys was using an armor piercing slug for the fight, ignoring almost all forms of modern battle armor, and though he could only carry three rounds per clip, it was well worth not running into any odd tech he didn't know about.

"explosives are ready" Wilson said as Archerson sprayed down two Milido marines with his SMG before throwing a grenade around the corner, the federation marines having a hard time getting to their position.

"oh wonderful… sergeant Cooper is having a field day keeping up with us…" Magen said as she flipped around and fired her MA6B at two soldiers turning the corner before they slid and jumped back away, calling in reinforcements.

"fine… I'LL go get them here…" Helden said as he ran out, dodged an explosion before rolling and diving behind cover, snap firing before he vaulted over the debris two federation soldiers hid behind.

"hey vatos! Whatchu doin sittin here? Come on! The party is just starting!" he grinned inside his helmet as he threw two grenades over the cover and waited five seconds before sticking his head out and firing.

"Marine my ass! That the best you can do?" Helden yelled out as he sprayed two soldiers down before reloading a clip, a sniper round flying over his head and hitting another sniper taking aim on him.

"thanks man! I owe you!" Helden waved to the air as Greys winked his green light in response.

"all charges set! We're clear!" Magen yelled out to everyone.

"chicken is in the coop" one federation soldier said.

"cook it" Archerson barked as all their side evacuated and detonated the explosives.

"hell yes! Boy do I love my job!" Wilson cheered as the last of the Milido soldiers regrouped.

"we got contacts coming in from the side lines, convoy on five, welcome committee is here" Michaels said.

"take up positions, that's three down, we still have thirty to go after these bastards are gone" Archerson said as the marines dug in under cover as the federation soldiers caught up.

"sir, unknown hostiles, moving in fast, I get the feeling they're… E.Ss get the hell out of here! We got covenant Banshees cutting in quick!" Greys yelled out suddenly as Archerson's stomach sunk.

In the distance, on the horizon, another convoy, much larger than the Milido reinforcements, started moving in, cutting the Milido marines off as explosions were seen in the background.

"fuck, we got covies in this sector! Just when things were looking up…" Wilson grumbled as the federation soldiers cheered.

"get your fucking heads down they aren't friendly you retards!" Archerson barked as the sergeant in charge looked at him oddly.

"but sir, they just took out the backup, are you sure?" the federation soldier said before a beam rifle caught him in the neck, his head rolling slightly as the beam vaporized a good portion of his shoulders.

"sniper! Get your heads down!" Archerson yelled as the federation soldiers took cover as the covenant moved towards them.

"shit, Wilson, com link? Did we handle the ecm?" Archerson asked as Wilson looked up at him. The tech nodded his head as he went back to raising his rifle, the captain cursing.

"wonderful, we can get in touch with our Spartan" Michaels said.

"any ideas?" the captain asked.

"there's no way around them, and with the shit we have it'll take a bit of effort to take out that armored column" Magen said as she shouldered a rocket launcher.

"fine, we do it the old fashioned way" Archerson said.

------------------------------

3 hours later, nearby

------------------------------

Garrett heard weird com chatter come over his radio as he swapped suddenly from one channel to the next, the same voice on every channel. His goggles were doing something odd, and he saw what looked like ghostly images of people moving around in front of him, completely oblivious to his form nearby. He looked around and suddenly saw what looked like an x-ray view into the ground of thousands of gnosis, all swarming and moving.

"Garrett are you ok?" Shion asked as he suddenly turned around at the sound of her voice.

"I'm… fine. Everything ok in the village?" Garrett said before taking another look behind him, the images gone.

"yeah, it's morning just about, just thought I'd see the sunset before the breakfast is made. Chaos is cooking right now. Shouldn't you eventually get some sleep now that everything is fine?" Shion asked.

"it's never fine, there's always a chance of a patrol coming too close" he said just as an energy signature was seen on the horizon of his radar.

"something's wrong…" Garrett closed his hand in a silence motion as he checked his sensors. The energy signature was trying to be hidden, and from what he knew exactly the tech that could ocillate the frequency he was seeing on his sensors.

"Shion, tell Chaos to evacuate the villagers, I've got covenant coming!" Garrett yelled out as he waved for her to run back.

"what? Are you serious? Here?" Shion gasped.

"get them out of here now! I'll try and draw them off, buy you some time, get going!" he yelled and ran towards the nearby mountainside, and flared his energy signature on all wave bands of detection. If he worked at it, he could light himself up like a Christmas tree and make the covenant track him instead of heading in the direction the village was.

"Garrett! Wait!" Shion yelled off as Chaos ran up, wondering what was going on.

"he's… Chaos, there are covenant from his world here, he's going to try and keep them away from us! We have to get the village evacuated!" Shion told him.

"but what about Garrett? How can he do that?" Chaos asked.

"I don't know, but we can't worry about him right now, we have too many lives at stake! Go wake up KOS-MOS!" Shion asked.

"I am already awake, what is wrong Shion?" KOS-MOS walked toward them as they stood at the edge of the village.

"KOS-MOS, you've got to help us, we have to get the village away from here, but I don't know of any hiding places nearby" Shion said.

"we can head to the caves I told you about, they are quite safe and well hidden" Chaos told her.

"ok, let's get to work" Shion said just as a red AMWS, what looked like an E.S, flew in and made a pass to grab KOS-MOS. She rolled to the side and looked up as it flew by them, and turned to stare.

"Well well, she's a quick one isn't she?" a male voice was heard.

"what did I tell you Hagen? He has good taste in women for the most part. It will take quite a bit of effort to control this wild one" a female voice was heard from another E.S, this one looking similar to Dinah but dark blue and long angel wings on it's back.

"oh Nalia, she can't be that bad now can she? We just have to not harm her until we bring her to Albert" Hagen said from the red mech, half of which looked to be the lower part of Asher, the other half Joseph.

"well, I guess we shouldn't debate this, let's grab her and leave quickly, those aliens nearby are quite a handful and why fight them when these people will do it for us" Nalia said from Mali, the blue mech.

"an E.S? but I thought all of them were destroyed save ours!" Shion gasped as she stared at both of them.

"just because we had our E.Ss Shion, does not mean more were not created, they simply didn't have the animas powering them" Chaos said as he waited for the next attack.

"oh come now, you really think you can stop us little man?" Hagen said as a volley of stun grenades flew out all around them, and KOS-MOS rushed in to guard Shion and knock Chaos out of the way. The grenades hit her back, one of which fell next to Shion and stunned both of the women, as Chaos rolled across the ground from the push and tried to stop her.

"as defensive as ever, a pure heart, I can see why he likes her" Nalia giggled as KOS-MOS fell to one knee, Shion knocked out from the first grenade.

KOS-MOS struggled to rise as her body was no longer a machine, tired from the first grenade attack before turning her head to see another volley.

"KOS-MOS!" Chaos yelled out as Mali stopped him from running forward to help her.

"so this is Yeshua, I can't believe you've lasted this long, but no need to talk, business is business" Nalia said as she rushed her mech towards him and knocked him towards the village.

The grenade volley hit, KOS-MOS trying to push Shion out of the way as it struck her back, again tiring her to the point of unconsciousness.

"one more…" Hagen said as he fired a third volley, this one KOS-MOS throwing her knife on her boot towards one, priming it's fuse and destroying the whole volley.

"damn it, she still has a few tricks up her sleeve" Hagen cursed as he fired two more volleys, just in case. They hit, and she fell, still trying to shield Shion from the attack, the small brown haired woman not able to survive more than two of the grenades, and ten were flying towards them. KOS-MOS fell to the ground on top of Shion, unconscious.

"no, damn you!" Chaos yelled

"finally, she takes quite a beating before going down. Let's retrieve her and get them out of here" Hagen said as he walked forward, picking up the limp KOS-MOS and Shion before flying off.

"bye bye little Yeshua, we'll play again soon" Nalia said as both mechs flew off towards the horizon.

"no… this can't be happening…" Chaos said as he saw an ear piece, what looked like a black ODST com rig Shion dropped that Garrett gave her.

"Shion, I heard gunfire, what's your status over" Garrett said as Chaos picked it up.

"Garrett, are you there?" Chaos asked.

"I'm here, where is Shion?" Garrett asked.

"she and KOS-MOS were taken, I don't know where, where are you?" Chaos asked.

"taken? Where?" Garrett asked as Chaos heard growling and roaring of a brute attacking.

"I don't know, we have to save them!" Chaos asked.

"currently occupied, that will be the next on my agenda" Garrett responded as Chaos heard gunfire from his rifle.

"Garrett, what's happening? Are you alright? Everything is happening so fast" Chaos asked.

"as I said, currently occupied, I'll talk to you later. Are the villagers safe?" the Spartan asked as Chaos heard a plasma blade ignite.

"I haven't told them yet" Chaos explained.

"then light a fire under your ass and get going, I can't hold these bastards forever" Garrett responded as he snap fired towards a group of brutes, doing no more than piss them off as he vaulted over a rock.

"but what about Shion?" Chaos asked.

"as I said, next on the agenda, focus on the here and now, now get your shit together and move!" Garrett suddenly snapped as he struggled with a brute landing on him.

"ok" Chaos said as he rushed off towards the villagers.

Garrett heard com chatter as he ran away, leading the covenant forces as far as he could make them go.

"one four by nine! Go long! Go long!" was heard over his com rig as he listened intently.

"this is Spartan 003 calling any friendly in the area, ODST call on high, status check respond over" Garrett asked as he heard gunfire over the coms.

"move! Move! Those bastards are gonna overrun us!" Garrett heard a federation marine yell out just as a mortar round was heard in the background.

"Garrett! Yo vato! Is that you! Idios mios is it good to hear from you again!" Helden cheered as the other ODSTs hollered out.

"what's your status and location?" Garrett asked.

"currently? Fucked sir, and our location is kinda mobile at the moment. We're under heavy fire from the Covenant. They found us sir" Helden said as he opened fire, a brute in the background roaring from the bullets.

"what's your zone private, and relay me to Archerson" Garrett asked as he tried to swap to his psi eye, concentrating hard as the soreness through his body started to tense his muscles. He could see the marines were not that far, a good twenty miles from their position on the other side of the mountains, hence not seeing any combat flares or mortar rounds.

"trying to sir, hold that thought" Helden said as he barked an order to a federation marine hiding.

"Corporal, explain to me what you did to wake up these damned hairy bastards, cause I know for a fact they didn't know we were here beforehand while shooting up the Milido morons" Archerson yelled out as he fired a full clip towards the covenant.

"I didn't wake them up sir, but I'll see if we can't make it to your position" Garrett responded as he looked at the two others.

"negative, ground fire is too hot and your position would take you forever and a day to reach us. Baker where the fuck is that transport?!" Archerson barked as a federation soldier ran up.

"currently about to land sir, they're reaching our location any second now" he said.

"bullshit! Have him turn around and pick up our Spartan!… now marine!" Archerson yelled as the corporal nodded scared and ran back to the communication systems.

"lift off in five corporal, accept the quick flight and get here asap" Archerson said as Garrett acknowledged.

"negative sir, I think I've found another route there" Garrett responded as he ran full speed towards a ghost hover cycle and boarded it, landing on the front and kicking out the driver, before flipping it around with plasma fire flaring against the sides before gunning it towards a hillock and jumping the cycle towards a banshee, and boarding that as well.

"what do you mean other route?" Archerson asked just as Garrett kicked the jackal out of the cockpit.

"inbound sir, sit tight" Garrett said as he flew towards the other side of the mountanside, the covenant soldiers trying to follow and calling in phantoms to pick them up.

Garrett cleared the side of the mountains to see turmoil on the ground, plasma fire traded for rifle fire as the marines fell back, mortar tanks smoking as rockets lanced out from a few Spnkr 42s, telling him the ODSTs were split up amongst the federation soldiers. He swerved the banshee towards the covenant and began a banking fire, sliding the banshee right as the plasma flowed from the twin nozzles on the face of the fighter.

"Garrett, might I ask, is the stupid floaty purple thing in the sky you? Cause it missed fucking half the shit it was attacking" Archerson smirked, lying as a trail of death was seen.

"sorry for the poor aim sir, I'll try better this time" Garrett responded as he pulsed the fuel rod cannon, the round flung towards a transport before knocking out it's engine, sending it careening into the mountainside as three more followed past it.

"Garrett, banshees heads up!" Magen yelled as twin rockets flew out and intercepted two purple flying creatures of impending doom to the aerial Spartan.

"thanks for the rescue, returning favor soon" Garrett responded as he flipped the banshee and boosted down towards the marines, making a hard turn right at the last second and firing both plasma cannons and fuel rod cannon at the same time.

"covenant are retreating, guess they were just testing the defenses here" Wilson said as Garrett saw the blips start to fall back.

"why the hell would they fall back? They could have had us with the position we had…" Archerson sighed as Garrett realized just where they were pushed to, open terrain, no covering to speak of. They would have been shelled into the ground.

"ok, lets get away from this sector for a bit, we still have some shit to handle" Archerson said as the marines started to pile into the relief transports for dust off.

"Captain, Shion and KOS-MOS have been captured, we should mount a rescue operation" Garrett asked as he flew next to the dropship.

"wait, what?" Archerson asked.

-----------------------------

2 hours later

-----------------------------

"so she's been captured. I'm guessing we need to mount a rescue operation" Archerson said.

"that's what Garrett just said" Jr. said over the com rig. The marines were still groundside, and the anti orbit weaponry was still for the most part untouched aside from three destroyed.

"we don't have any back up though, we can't send anything through while those things are still operational" Allen said on another screen.

"well, we could technically send a few more troops down through the window the Helljumpers opened for us, it would take some time, but they could widen the control zone and give everyone some breathing room" Togashi said.

"that's not a bad idea. They could finish off what we need to get out of here and pull KOS-MOS and the rest back before anything bad happens" Greys said.

"alright, here's what we're gonna do" Archerson said as the others huddled around him.

-------------------------

Another 2 hours later

-------------------------

KOS-MOS looked around, blurry eyed as she woke up, her head splitting. She pressed her hand to her head, the world spinning as she tried to get up.

"ah, you shouldn't be moving my dear, I am sorry my people were so hard on you, you were so insistant on not leaving" a voice said as a cold wet cloth was placed towards her forehead. She looked up at saw Albert sitting next to her, pressing the cloth to her. She leapt backwards on the bed she was laying on and pressed against the back of the pillows as he backed off.

"it is alright, you are fine, I won't hurt you, you know it my dear KOS-MOS" Albert smiled.

"why am I here? What do you intend to do with me?" KOS-MOS asked, her face stern.

"as I told you, I won't hurt you, I'd never harm that precious face" Albert said as he reached out the brush his hand across her cheek. She slapped his hand away quickly and got up on the other side, still woozy from the grenades before falling back.

"you shouldn't move sweetheart, it wouldn't be wise, the effects are quite strong, I'm surprised you took that many, such a noble thing to protect Shion" Albert said as he put his hands on her shoulders, easing her down. She flipped him over her shoulder and rolled over the bed, trying to find a way to escape.

"What did you do with Shion? Where is she? If you have done anything to her…" KOS-MOS shaded her eyes towards him as she became angry.

"agh, I didn't expect that…" Albert said as four guards aimed their rifles at KOS-MOS, another helping him up from the fall.

"she is fine KOS-MOS, she is well and being held in another room. But you should sleep, you have a big day ahead of you" Albert calmed down.

"take me to her now" KOS-MOS commanded as she stood defensively.

Albert sighed.

"very well, if it will make you settle down, but I am telling you she is fine" Albert said as he motioned towards a door nearby to the bedroom, and KOS-MOS looked at it. A Guard opened the door and in ran Shion, looking around before spotting KOS-MOS, and ran to her.

"oh my god, are you alright KOS-MOS? Did he do anything to you?" Shion asked as she hugged her friend, looking at Albert as KOS-MOS stood there.

"Shion, are you ok? Did he hurt you?" KOS-MOS asked.

"no, no I'm fine, but what did he do to you? Anything?" Shion asked her.

"nothing, yet. I do not know as of yet what his plans are for me" KOS-MOS said to her friend.

"future plans are so hard to pursue these days, life throws incomprehensible curve balls in our direction every day, jobs, wars, politics, love" Albert smiled towards KOS-MOS.

"what do you want from me? I am not going to be part of anything you wish of me, at all" KOS-MOS sternly said.

"not even for the sake of your friend?" Albert asked as the Guards aimed at Shion.

"you said you wouldn't harm her" KOS-MOS said.

"simply hear me out, and say yes, and she will not be harmed" Albert said as KOS-MOS looked at their chances. She couldn't block all of the rounds in her current state, and Shion would be killed.

"very well… speak" KOS-MOS replied.

"wonderful. Now, you say you are human correct? Albeit superhuman in all cases of the word" Albert smiled, cheerful again.

"yes" KOS-MOS replied.

"then this is great news! Tell me, do you have any interests yet? Family? Any hobbies? A loved one perhaps?" Albert asked.

"what are you getting at? Tell me now" KOS-MOS asked.

"oh, come now, I simply want to know what you are trying to move on towards. Are your ambitions towards ever finding love? When this is all over, would you be interested in settling down?" Albert asked.

"what are you intending. Speak now, do not ask anymore of these questions" KOS-MOS told him.

"fine, fine. I will come clean. KOS-MOS, I, Albert Vanburen, am in love with you" Albert made a grand motion with his hands towards her.

KOS-MOS was silent.

"which is why I ask, would you be with me? I know, I know, it is so sudden, but you see, I couldn't bare you to be with anyone else. Every heart's desire you wish for will be fulfilled, every thing you could want will be given, I will do everything possible to care for you. What do you say? Hmm? Say yes, KOS-MOS, and be mine" Albert asked, putting his hand out for her to grab, expecting her to leap into his arms.

KOS-MOS thought for a moment as she saw him do this.

"I will not. I do not have any feelings towards you in any way, and the fact that you have gone through all of this trouble to be hostile towards us and fight instead of talk has proven you are an evil man that must be stopped" KOS-MOS replied.

Albert frowned.

"but my dear, I have done all of this for you, just to be with you, you must realize that" Albert said, trying to smile again.

"you have attacked innocent people, attacked my friends and have tried to take me hostage twice, one successful, and have fought to claim me as a prize to be won. I will do nothing of the sort" KOS-MOS told him.

"oh my, so cold right now you are. You don't seem to see things from my position my dear. KOS-MOS, search your heart, don't you feel even a little bit attracted? Can you love anyone? Has anyone shown affection towards you?" Albert asked.

"leave us alone" KOS-MOS asked.

"no one has have they? They see you as a friend don't they? No feelings towards you, as you were once a machine, so they see you as equipment. That is so sad to hear KOS-MOS. I don't see you as that, as simply another gun. You are important to me. Please. If it will make you feel better, I will stop my men from attacking anything, they will hereby stop all hostilities. I simply needed to have my people land, you understand right? All of this arguing over who could land on Earth, it was too much. Morale improves with victory, you understand right?" Albert explained.

"no, I do not, and I do not feel the same way towards you" KOS-MOS said simply.

"KOS-MOS, it is very complicated I know, but don't worry. Give me some time to show you how I feel, then everything will sort itself out. Please. No one else will do the same for you. Let me try to touch your heart" Albert said as sirens were heard nearby.

"what's going on?" Shion asked.

"sir, there's a transport of unknown registry moving nearby, they haven't detected us yet" a soldier said.

"show me" Albert said as a screen floated in mid air, showing a pelican flying towards an LZ.

"it's currently under fire by another unknown transport, a dog fight is happening" the soldier said.

"it's that damnable black armored soldier again…" Albert sighed as the screen showed Garrett manning a chain turret on the back of the pelican as the phantom attacked them, firing behind as the pelican banked to dodge the attacks.

"should we destroy them?" the soldier asked.

Albert looked towards KOS-MOS and his eyes softened.

"no. attack the purple transport instead. I will show you KOS-MOS, I am not a bad man, give me a chance" Albert said as the cannons from the cloaked ship fired, slamming into the small transport and flaring against it's shields.

"sir, the attack was resisted" the soldier suddenly told him.

"what? How?" Albert's attention moved away from the woman as the phantom tried to figure out what attacked them. Garrett took advantage of this by jumping out of the pelican and landing, the shields shimmering as they tried to slide him off before he placed an emitter over it and a hole opened, Garrett falling through and landing on the hull of the purple ship.

"incredible, how did he survive the landing?" Albert asked as the Spartan surfed on top of the ship before smashing his armored fist into the hull, pulling it away before scanning the wiring. He started to hack into the controls and disabled the engines as the pelican flipped about, firing a volley of missiles just as Garrett ran and leapt off the Phantom, soaring through the air to land with a loud clang on top of the transport, before flipping under the back wings and jumping into the cargo bay.

"that is a very impressive marine" the Milido marine said, surprised.

"Spartan" KOS-MOS whispered as she watched, twin blue goggles checking the area outside.

"we've hacked into their com channels as well" the marine said as he brought up vocal.

"any sign of any ship in the area?" Archerson asked.

"nothing sir, still scanning for KOS-MOS's life signs. Nadda" Garrett responded.

"Garrett… I'm right here…" KOS-MOS whispered as the pelican started to move away from the area.

"understood, we'll try another zone" Archerson said.

"Garrett we're right here!" KOS-MOS yelled out as the com channel closed.

"enough. KOS-MOS, I am asking you to be mine, please say yes, I am telling you you won't be disappointed" Albert sternly said as he smiled.

"our friends are looking for us, I won't go anywhere near you" KOS-MOS responded.

Albert frowned.

"you will be mine, even if I have to force you to see it my way. Guards" Albert motioned as two guards moved toward them. Shion tried to attack one but was caught mid air by Hagen as KOS-MOS tried to fight back, Nalia flipping out of the shadows and pinning her.

"what are you going to do? Let us go!" Shion yelled as Nalia placed a collar around KOS-MOS's neck, the little device activating as KOS-MOS's eyes went into a trance.

"see? She's already seeing it my way" Albert smiled as Nalia checked to make sure KOS-MOS wouldn't fight, and sure enough, she slowly got up and stood there, motionless.

"What did you do to her?!" Shion yelled out as KOS-MOS stared like a zombie.

"I'm simply giving her a view of what she should be doing, that's all. She'll see it my way for quite some time. My princess, come to me" Albert said as he put his hand out. KOS-MOS slowly walked towards him and Shion yelled out, trying to break away from the large man holding her. He was quite strong, overly strong for his body, and Nalia moved as fast as KOS-MOS.

KOS-MOS put her hand out and took Albert's in hers, and he smiled.

"together, finally. You will see KOS-MOS, everything will be shown soon. You should freshen up though. Take Shion to the other room, my dear will wish to change into something more comfortable" Albert said as KOS-MOS simply stared at him in a trance, her eyes glazed over.

"no. NO! leave her alone!" Shion yelled out.

"Shion, I do not know what you think I will do, but it will not hurt her in anyway. She will simply dress more accordingly, not in this armor she has. It is very unfitting" Albert scowled as he surveyed the blue haired woman.

"I believe the dress on the table would definitely suit you" Albert said as Shion was forced into the other room.

-------------------------

Meanwhile

-------------------------

"did you catch that vocal on channel four?" Archerson yelled out over the wind.

"Yes sir, it was KOS-MOS, point six two on the high front, cloaked ship, energy signature loud and clear. Shion was nearby after I flipped through their security" Wilson said as he tracked all com chatter on his mainframe.

"good, now to start phase 2" Archerson replied.


	14. Sacrifice

Transport thirty two was scheduled to land in hangar bay two at 13:00 hours, however it was fifteen minutes late which caused due stress to the workers and security guards on the Aleros, Albert's carrier.

"what's the hold up? Transport thirty two, why the hell did it take you so long to get here?" the com officer stated as the small ship landed.

"Sorry sir, ran into some turbulance, but we're here now, we'll begin unloading shortly" a female voice said on the other side.

"understood. Transmit your clearance codes now" the com officer said as the turrets tracked the incoming ship. A random assortment of encrypted codes were transmitted to convey it was indeed transport thirty two coming to land, and the docking bay doors opened. The ship landed gracefully and workers walked up to unload the cargo.

"make sure this is set up properly, the master does not wish to keep the ceremony held off any longer than it has to" a security guard said as he ordered troops to move things.

Magen walked off the RORO (roll on roll off) ramp and handed in her clipboard pad, along with wearing a stolen pilot suit.

"where's the original captain?" the guard asked eyeing her.

"the captain was feeling ill so I was left in control of transporting the cargo here. He's on the Magara medical ship nearby" Magen responded.

"why wasn't I informed?" the guard asked.

"you're a corporal little man, don't ask questions where you aren't supposed to and just get this cargo unloaded!" Magen snapped as she pointed at the lieutenant's badge on her chest.

"er, yes ma'am! Get this stuff off that ship on the double!" the guard yelled as workers moved crates off.

As the troops took crates away, a slight shift in the air moved out of the ship and slid across the wall, the door opening slightly before closing behind as whatever left disappeared through.

------------------------

Meanwhile

------------------------

"you look beautiful in that dress KOS-MOS" Albert said as he stared at her sitting at the table, motionless as well as emotionless, her eyes still glazed. She wore a pure white dress, strapless, with long white gloves down her arms. Crystal high heels were on her feet, and twin diamond earings as well as a pearl tiara was worn on her head and ears. She was wearing red lipstick and eye shadow, and in all interests made her almost seem majestic, a true to life princess of dreams.

She, however, didn't speak, her mind numb from the collar as she was confined and trapped in her own world, her body not under her command.

"I bet you can't wait til it's finally done. We'll both be so happy together don't you think?" Albert said as he smiled at her, and reached across the table to caress her cheek. She stared down at the white cloth as his hand slid across her skin, no response of any kind, no shudder or recoil from his touch, not even a movement of her eyes as she sat.

"it will happen soon enough, just you wait. Then it will be complete my dear" Albert softly said.

"um… sir… the transport is here. The ceremony will be ready in just a few hours" a soldier said as he coughed nervously at the door.

"good, have them prepare at once, I will not be left waiting any longer" Albert ordered as he picked up KOS-MOS's hand in his, and rubbed the back of it softly.

"I shall come back once I am ready KOS-MOS, wait here until then" Albert said as he got up and kissed her on the cheek softly, caressed her hair, then left the room. KOS-MOS sat at the table still unmoving, unphased by anything, trapped.

-----------------------

2 hours later

-----------------------

"so, these humans think they can hide in plain sight do they? Grrr, we'll see about that" Kratos said as he stomped up towards a group of jackals and pushed them out of the way, storming towards the lookout point.

"sir, we cannot get close to the ship without them trying to attack, we do not have any cruisers in this world to mount a full scale assault on that carrier" another brute told him. The chieftain growled and batted at the brutes head.

"we are not so spineless as to be afraid of a human vessel! These are weaklings! They will be crushed by our onslaught" Kratos yelled as he raised his fist in anger.

"they have a demon with them though, we have lost half of our forces to him" Bordoc, another lower ranked chieftain said.

"we will gain more! Even now our troops are pouring out of that portal. This world will soon be ours, we will have our revenge on that demon. Release the Revenants. Let's see how he fairs against something that hunts for him" Kratos grinned.

---------------------------------------

The guard never saw it coming. The door slid open and he was suddenly face to chest with a be goggled super soldier, who suddenly shot out a lightning kick to the stomach of the guard before pulling him through the door, checking to see if anyone had seen the attack before closing it.

"all guards have been neutralized in this sector, security systems are disabled, welcome mat is not out. Ready when you are sir" Garrett said over a maser COM, completely undetectable and couldn't be listened in on by any guards.

"let's move out then. You have your orders" Captain Archerson said as the crates opened up, silver ware and chairs and garlands moved out of the way as the ODSTs slipped out of the cargo bay, moving to different locations.

"Wilson and Helden, handle Engineering, Greys Magen and Michaels, you're with me, we're hitting the bridge, Garrett, you have the armory" Archerson ordered as they suddenly switched coms off. The soldiers moved silently through the ship, cracking security codes where needed as Chaos followed behind the Spartan, helping where he could.

"the covenant, are they like the gnosis?" Chaos whispered over Garrett's shoulder.

Garrett didn't respond, just kept moving forward with his rifle at his shoulder, aimed at whatever door they were passing before moving on towards the armory.

"Corporal, we have a disturbance in the shields of the ship" Miyuki whispered. Garrett held up his fist as an all stop signal to Chaos, then knelt near the wall as he listened.

"status?" Archerson asked.

"unknown, but it looked like something moved through, we don't quite know what yet. We didn't see any other transports heading in that direction, no flight trajectories or anything. I'll keep you posted later" Miyuki said as she searched for more information.

"understood. Wilson, status?" Archerson asked.

"we've infiltrated engineering, priming mines for detonation" Wilson responded.

"alright, we're gonna storm the bridge soon. Get ready" Archerson told them.

------------------------------

KOS-MOS was walked to the altar slowly as the music played, a bouquet in her hand as Shion was tied to a pew and gagged as she struggled, Albert standing at the altar wearing a white tuxedo as he watched her helped forward. She stared at the ground the whole time, Hagen and Nalia standing nearby and smiling devilishly.

"ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here today for a truly momentous occasion, that of the marriage of these two in holy matrimony. They're love has brought them together from time and distance, and will keep them strong throughout the days of their future together. Those who are against their union should speak now" the priest said at the altar as Shion was held just out of view of the unsuspecting civilian.

"as I had thought, no one. Very well then, Albert Vanburen, do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, in sickness and in health, in rich and in poor, in good and in bad, as long as you both shall live?" the priest asked.

"I do" Albert said smiling towards KOS-MOS, her eyes still glazed and her hands held in his.

"and do you, KOS-MOS, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, in sickness and in health, in rich and in poor, in good and in bad, as long as you both shall live?" the priest asked. Nalia used some ventriloquism on KOS-MOS to make her speak as she stood nearby.

"I do" Nalia made it sound as if KOS-MOS said it, her own voice changing strangely, almost mechanical.

"very well. Albert, take this ring, and say to her, with this ring, I do wed thee" the priest said as Albert was handed the wedding ring.

"with this ring, I do wed thee" Albert said as he placed it on KOS-MOS's finger.

"now KOS-MOS, with this ring, take his hand and place it on his finger, and say, with this ring, I do wed thee" the priest asked.

KOS-MOS stood there for a moment in complete silence, then slowly moved to do as she was told, but did not speak. Nalia spoke suddenly for her.

"with this ring, I do wed thee" Nalia said behind her, and the voice traveled through KOS-MOS's mouth.

"very well, I now pronounce you-" the priest almost finished before an explosion went off.

"sir! Sir! Engineering has been destroyed! Our cloaking has been disabled!" a soldier ran up only to be backhanded by Hagen.

"no! not now! The ceremony isn't complete!" Albert yelled as the priest stood back.

"well hurry up! Finish saying the words!" Albert ordered to the priest.

"I cannot! Not when blood is being spilled in this ship! If there is a battle going on, then the communion between you two is unsanctioned" the priest told him.

"what?! I told you, finish the ritual now! Can you not see we are in love! Do it!" Albert yelled as he hugged KOS-MOS to him, KOS-MOS acting like a rag doll as another explosion rocked the ship.

"the bridge is under fire! They're taking heavy casualties!" another soldier said.

"how did they get in?! how?!" Albert screamed as Hagen and Nalia guarded the two.

"sir, we should get you off this ship, it isn't safe anymore, we have a foothold situation" Hagen told him as he escorted the man and the blue haired woman with him out of the room towards a launch bay.

-------------------------------

Chaos followed Garrett as he sprayed a group of soldiers, trying desperately to keep up with the soldier as he turned corners and ripped through defenses like it was paper. He was moving fast, and he knew where KOS-MOS was going. As they past a door, Garrett rifle butted without even breaking stride, clothes lining a soldier coming out as he continued past as Chaos gasped at his brutality and strength. This man certainly didn't fight with any finesse, simply enough energy placed in his strikes to be efficient.

"we're heading to docking bay four, we're gonna cut them off" Garrett said just as he opened a door. He stopped dead in his tracks. It was a horror scene. Cut up bodies, dead soldiers and mutilated corpses were layering the ground.

"Chaos, stay back" Garrett ordered as he checked every single sensor and scan wave he had to track whatever was inside. His squad definitely didn't do whatever did this.

"Captain, the rest of the team has broken through! They should be able to lend some assistance in the docking bay of your choice once they land" Miyuki suddenly blared out as Garrett checked his motion sensors. Nothing. It might have left the area, or it might just be running on low power to keep him from detecting whatever tore up the troops. The Milido marines were enemies, but no one deserved this.

"roger that, Jr, you alive?" Archerson asked as rifle fire was heard in the background.

"yeah, we're landing in three, two, on- hey wait! Are the shields down?" Jr. yelled as the Asher started moving towards the ship.

"Yes they're down! Wilson blew engineering! Shit, get your ass in here we could use some backup!" Archerson barked as he threw a grenade.

"we're almost there, hang tight" Allen yelled out as they smashed their E.Ss through the blockade door and landed, everyone piling out just as Hagen and Albert ran through, KOS-MOS and Shion in tow towards an escape transport.

"Chaos, move through quickly, I'll cover" Garrett told the white haired boy as he knelt down and aimed his rifle around the corner.

"are you sure?" Chaos asked.

"I'll be fine, I'll watch our back while everyone is inside the docking bay, something isn't right in here…" Garrett told him.

"alright, we'll let you know when we have KOS-MOS safe" Chaos told him as he slowly went through another door.

-------------------------

"she's mine, you can't have her" Albert growled as Jr stood at the head of the gang, T-elos behind the whole group.

"let them go now!" Jr. yelled as Archerson came in behind them, covering the door.

"well, this may be an interesting day after all" Hagen said as he smirked.

"shut the hell up and surrender! You can't win!" Jr. yelled as he aimed his pistols at them.

"oh ho, we can't win can we? Oh dear, so a horrible fate for us, no hope of escaping! Oh my" Nalia performed as she brought her hand up to her forehead and acted distressed.

"grrr, let them go now!" Allen suddenly yelled, and fired his crossbow at Hagen who easily caught the bolt in his hand and snapped it.

"pathetic" Hagen said as T-elos's eyes suddenly squinted, and she slowly moved to the front of the group.

"you fool, something isn't right about those two, they aren't human" T-elos told the group as both Hagen and Nalia stood at ease in front of Albert as he slowly slipped away with KOS-MOS held in his arms, moving to the transport.

"not so fast asshole! Stop where you are!" Archerson barked as Shion broke away from the guard holding her. She ran as fast as she could before Nalia grabbed her by the neck and picked her up off the ground, keeping her from running.

"there now, that wasn't a good thing to do" Nalia said as the guard rolled on the ground, Greys taking aim on Nalia's back and firing. The bullet hit, and pinged.

":what the fuck…" Greys whispered as Nalia looked over her shoulder.

"disappointed? I would be" she smiled as she tightened her grip on Shion's neck.

"let her go!" Jr. yelled and fired just as T-elos knocked his hands down, the bullets flying in a random direction.

"why did you do that?" Jr. asked her.

"you cannot begin to fathom what they are capable of. They aren't human, they've been somehow permanently attached to an energy signature similar to the UMN. They've been cybernetically enhanced as well" T-elos responded as she turned and stared at Nalia, who winked at her.

"how do we stop them then?" Ziggy asked.

"get to KOS-MOS, I will deal with her" T-elos said as she clinched her fists and slowly walked forward. Shion was starting to lose consciousness from the grip and no breath as Nalia threw her towards the marines, before hitting a button on a controller she had and closing the door, locking them out.

"hello there love, now, how is it that you plan on dealing with me then?" Nalia said to T-elos as they stared at each other, the rest of the group moving towards Hagen. T-elos suddenly lunged towards her, attacking quickly and furiously punching before kicking and back flipping, trying to foot sweep Nalia as she flipped backwards and up into the air, landing on the wall before T-elos fired her blaster.

Both women started fighting hard and fast as Hagen watched the rest of the group charge him. Ziggy was first to try and attack before being blocked and knocked off his feet, three arrows flying at Hagen as he dodged and rolled, Jr. firing as Chaos tried to punch.

"you think this will have any effect? You worthless pathetic beings. You can't stop true love, and you certainly can't stop our plans here. She is needed" Hagen growled as he ran towards Jr, the young man rolling to the right as Chaos tried to knock him down, himself being pushed towards a wall.

"this guy is hard!" Jr. yelled as Ziggy got up, trying again to tangle with the other CYBORG as Chaos tried to get up.

"can't we do anything from this side?" Shion asked as she coughed after being helped up by the marines.

"We can try, Garrett, where the hell are you?" Archerson barked over his coms. No response.

"at least I was able to get this" Shion coughed as she pulled out a small controller.

"what is… whoa, that looks forerunner!" Wilson said as he took it, and pressed a few symbols.

KOS-MOS's collar suddenly popped off as it deactivated, and she closed her eyes as she fell from the trance, her body now hers but severely weakened from her state of mind. She fell to the floor, tired but awake, trying to regain her bearings and her legs as Albert tried to pull her into the transport.

"Come on my dear, we can't stay here, come on, move, let's go!" Albert started to yell as KOS-MOS broke away, staggering down the ramp of the transport as he ran after her and tried to grab her. He knocked her to the ground as she struggled to get away, her strength still not hers as she fought to escape.

"leave her alone!" Allen yelled as he aimed his crossbow at Albert, who tried to flip KOS-MOS over by grabbing at her dress. He ripped the skirt off to bare her panties and stockings for the world to see, and as she was flipped over and he forced himself on top of her and get her under control, a bolt flew through the air and slammed straight through his shoulder, poking out of his thigh as he screamed, KOS-MOS knocking him off her. She gasped, shocked at the scene as the man sprayed spittle from his face at her and clutched at his leg, wetting himself, still spurting blood as she pulled away, covered.

"I… I'm sorry… I didn't mean to…" Allen was just as shocked as she was as she slowly walked towards him, at least part of her skirt still intact over her lace underwear.

"no!" Hagen roared as he saw Albert crying, before throwing Ziggy clear across the room and rushing Allen. KOS-MOS quickly came to her senses and rushed to intercept, pulling Allen's pistol from his holster and firing as her arm turned into a golden blade. Her strength was coming back, but it was still not there yet as he dodged easily.

"not going to happen my dear" Hagen grinned as she tried to attack, before suddenly having Nalia thrown into him as T-elos dropped from the sky, right next to KOS-MOS.

"Allen, do you still have an equipment armor reconfiguration module?" KOS-MOS asked.

"uh, ya, I mean, sure I do, why?" Allen asked.

"give it to me please" KOS-MOS asked as he handed her the small beacon that she placed on her chest. The dress was ripped to pieces as her skin glowed around her body, and as the golden light died down, her body armor was back, the twin jeweled half visor back as she prepared to fight.

Just then the door was blown open, and the marines and Shion ran in and aimed.

"what are you trying to do? What did he want with her?" Shion asked Hagen.

"well well, it seems things have turned for the worse here" Nalia said.

"I would have to agree, considering our patron is down for the count" Hagen said as he shot a look towards Albert who was crawling into the transport.

"what did he want with her? Answer me!" Shion asked.

"he was in love Shion, with KOS-MOS. She was his everything, his sun and joy" Nalia responded.

"bullshit, he wouldn't have gone through this much trouble for one woman that he could have just hit on. Something is up" Archerson said.

"well, that wouldn't be the whole story now would it? You see, KOS-MOS has a soul, a small one, but just enough to let her solidify this universe's unending future. It's large enough to let her through most entrances into the Ark, but small enough to let her live through the grueling aftermath once the Ark is activated" Hagen said.

"What do you mean?" Shion asked.

"you mean to tell me you have no idea what is going to happen inside the Ark?" Nalia asked.

"humor us" Archerson said over Shion objecting.

"the Ark is the opening to a new future for humanity, to save our unending souls from destruction. However, it requires a sacrifice, enough of a sacrifice to let it realize the pain humanity has gone through. Love, hate, war, death, pain, happiness, it is difficult to find someone who has felt all of it and yet would be willing to subject themselves to the sacrifice the Ark wishes of them in it's operation. KOS-MOS fits that bill perfectly. Albert was simply putting love into the equation for the Ark to recognize the after effects" Hagen told them.

"wait, KOS-MOS, was going to be sacrificed?" Shion asked.

"isn't it obvious Shion? Three of them, yet only one can be allowed to make the Ark work. Your little friend in the Dammerung has simply run out of chances to reconcile herself to that end, so KOS-MOS would have to do, and it isn't a sacrifice per se, it is more of a feeling of destruction. She would live, for the most part, at least we think she will" Nalia said.

"why not T-elos? Why only KOS-MOS?" Jr. asked as T-elos looked annoyed.

"T-elos does not have the characteristics of a pure soul that is needed for the final activation the Ark wants, it's very picky" Nalia winked at the little man.

"well it won't happen, KOS-MOS isn't going to be some lamb lead to the slaughter!" Chaos yelled as a transport ship lifted near the broken door and fired it's lasers, the group taking cover as Hagen and Nalia ran towards Albert, grabbed him, and then sprinted fast towards the hole in the armor. The side door opened, and both ran in to be greeted by an all too well known man, sitting in a hovering wheel chair and wearing black glasses.

"you're late" Hagen said as Seller moved out of the way.

"and you failed. I don't have patience for failure my dear boy, it simply isn't an option" Sellers said as the door closed and the transport lifted away, firing as it did so as everyone aimed and fired, both KOS-MOS and T-elos now able to materialize their chain guns and open up.

"damn, they got away. Well, at least KOS-MOS is safe" Jr. said as Shion ran and hugged the blue haired woman, everyone glad she was fine.

"I was so worried about you, did he do anything to you? Are you hurt?" Shion mothered over KOS-MOS as the red eyed woman smiled.

"I am fine now, thank you for getting the collar off of me, my mind… it was so numb, so cold. That machine was controlling me" KOS-MOS said as she pointed to the collar that Wilson picked up.

"yup, it's forerunner, damned type 1 also, nasty little bugger" the tech said as he checked the sides.

"how did it do that to KOS-MOS?" Shion asked.

"it's a mind control device, don't ask how it works cause we can't say, we just don't know. All we know is it works. Type 2s we do know about, mostly military crap. Type 1s on the other hand, still a mystery. The weird part is, the type 1s are easy as hell to work, the type 2s on the other hand are a bitch and a half to figure the buttons, to make sure someone doesn't blow their own head off" Archerson replied.

"so, they used forerunner technology on KOS-MOS? What is forerunner technology anyway?" Shion asked. The marines looked amongst themselves.

"it's a long story, not meant for here. We'll explain later, right now though we gotta get off this ship before it goes down, the anti grav controls will break in no time" Archerson told them.

"wait, where's Garrett?" Momo asked.

Everyone looked around before Archerson commed him in.

"Garrett, respond, what's your status?" Archerson asked. No response.

"Garrett, speak up Corporal, we're dusting off for crying out loud! What's going on?" he asked. Still no response.

"hey, what's that over in the corner?" Jr. asked as he pointed.

"that's a… whoa…" Wilson said as Magen and Archerson tried to reach Garrett.

"that's a… stasis transport system… unbelievable… how the hell did he get that thing out of the Ark?" Wilson said as he gawked and walked towards it.

"what does it do?" Shion asked.

"it's a stasis boarding capsule control system. You load a capsule with whatever you want into it's effective beam containment and it will warp the molecules of the thing out of alignment with normal time. Nothing will effect it, not age or anything. Very useful for storing food we think for forerunners" Wilson theorized.

"I wonder… might that have been used on KOS-MOS if the collar did not work on her…" Chaos asked.

"might have if Albert was desperate enough. Problem was he might not have figured out how to operate the thing, this is type 3 shit here, complete unknown. I'm surprised he excavated it without getting the shit shot out of him by sentinels, or hitting any defenses that could have blown while getting it out" Wilson said.

"oooh, that thing looks really weird… I don't think I'd wanna have my body parts stopped from working, no thank you vato" Helden said as he sized the thing up.

"I doubt it works on a living organism, but that's just my thought" Wilson said as everyone heard Archerson talking in the background.

"shit, he's MIA… Magen, you got a tracking beac-" Archerson tried to ask before the docking bay wall burst open, a Spartan smashed through and thrown clear across the bay, two feet from KOS-MOS's face almost in slow motion, fragments of the wall floating with him, before speeding up as he was imprinted into the opposite wall, and fell to the ground. He was hurt, badly, and the thing that attacked him was coming through.

"Everyone heads up!" Archerson said as he pushed everyone back, including KOS-MOS and T-elos as the Revenant, a singularly ugly machine, walked carefully like a cat through the hole it just made using Garrett as the battering ram. It was heavily armored, three times Garrett's size, and had a singular purple eye in the middle of it's head. It stalked towards Garrett as he slowly got up, holding his side as his armor was cracked, his helmet glitching in it's feedback.

"oh god… no it can't be…" Magen was nearly at tears despite being a marine as she realized what she was staring at.

"what is that thing!" Jr. asked.

"it's a revenant… it's designed specifically to hunt for Spartans. I thought it was just a rumor, a design in the process of being thought up by the covenant. I guess it's real then… a Spartan killer…" Archerson gasped as the machine suddenly broke into a dead run towards Garrett as he brought his rifle to bear, firing a full clip as the armor piercing rounds did nothing to the shields before the thing grabbed his leg and smashed him into the ground, still holding him as it threw him like a rag doll into the air and smashing him into the ceiling before leaping, clamping clawed hooves into the ceiling plating as it grabbed Garrett mid fall, and started to smash it's huge armored arms into the soldier. Garrett did his best to block and return a few hits, but he was being worn down incredibly quickly, paneling breaking off from his Caduceus armor as it tore into the black armored man.

"it's killing him!" Shion screamed as Garrett kicked out, making it dodge from the attack as Garrett finally fell from the ceiling, pulling his SMGs and unloading towards the machine as it dove to grab him again. It was unrelenting as it had it's prey in sight, the Spartan desperately trying to get away as he fell to the ground, the huge machine almost falling on top of him before Garrett rolled out of the way.

As Garrett tried to regain his footing, the Revenant smashed it's arm into him as he blocked, sliding him across the bay as his boots dug divets into the floor before he lost his balance and back flipped, jumping into the air and did a triple flip with his legs bent ninety degrees before coming down in front of the group.

"Garrett!" Chaos yelled as Garrett slumped slightly to his knees, weakened.

"we can't handle that thing! We gotta get out of here! Evac is coming!" Archerson yelled as the marines opened fire at it, KOS-MOS and T-elos doing the same as the Revenant came at them, the bullets and chain cannon fire doing little against it's shields.

Suddenly, Garrett materialized his THOR 690GW on his shoulder, a large pulse Spartan Laser, and aimed, his targeting shaky from his damaged armor and pain. He suddenly realized the charge pulse would take three seconds to ignite and fuse, channeling down the barrel as the Revenant closed in on him. He ran suddenly straight towards it as the Revenant wacked at him, Garrett's own strength no match even while amplified as he was smashed into the ground, a crater made just as he kicked, the Revenant thrown into the air as he aimed carefully.

He squeezed the trigger as the laser channeled, and cut through the Revenant's shields and through it's body out the other side. It was still coming down though…

"Garrett! Look out!" Wilson yelled as the Revenant slammed down on top of the Spartan, covering him in the crater.

"oh god no… GARRETT!" Shion screamed as KOS-MOS suddenly tried to run forward, Chaos trying to stop her in the event the Revenant was still functional. She broke away and ran up the edge of the crater and looked down, sparks flying from the machine as it twitched, collapsed on it's arm. Something moved under it's weight as the machine was lifted slowly, carefully off the Spartan as he crawled out, a deep puncture wound seen in his side as the arm was pulled from his abdomen.

He stumbled towards her, or almost past her as she tried to help him sit down, multiple other punctures seen. She couldn't believe it, so much blood, so many wounds were seen as his left goggle was cracked on the lens, sparking, the faceplate cut and gouged at as he fought to stand back up.

"Man down!" Archerson yelled as everyone rushed up to him and try and help.

"Shit he's losing blood fast" Michaels said as he checked his vitals.

"we gotta get him to a medical bay" Magen said as KOS-MOS's eyes started to tear up, unseen by anyone else.

In the background, sounds could be heard of clanking, coming from outside the hole in the wall.

"What the… oh shit…" Archerson said as he looked towards the hole, two more Revenants poking and looking around nearby as they seemed curious, like dogs smelling fresh blood.

"we have to get out of here… now…" Archerson whispered as the others saw the two menacing creatures, and the group tried to lift Garrett.

"shit, his ecg is starting to lever! This is bad! Really bad!" Michaels said as he watched Garrett's stats skyrocket.

"god damn, we don't have a chance!" Archerson yelled as the other marines opened fired at the machines, both of them looking up from the damaged wall and staring straight at them before starting to rush towards them.

"fuck! We're screwed!" Helden yelled as he pumped shell after shell from his shotgun towards the machines as they rushed towards them, before Garrett looked past the group crooning over him and aimed his laser. He momentarily saw KOS-MOS looking sadly down at him, and saying "don't die. Please. Don't die, you have to pull through" she said just as he fired, a long beam from the already heated coils streaming towards one and blasting it's leg off as the other leapt towards the ceiling, clamping into it and roaring a screech down at them.

He slumped somewhat just as KOS-MOS ran to the stasis field generator, and fired her chain gun at the machines, before dropping it for a new clip. At the same time, she concentrated and collected energy in front of her chest, readying a D-teneritas to fire at the machines.

Both Revenants suddenly jerked their heads in her direction, detecting the massive energy build up and knew it could do some serious harm to them. They started to stalk towards her as she acted as decoy.

"what the!" Archerson said as Garrett struggled to get up and push everyone away, rolling as he struggled to limp towards the stasis system.

"Garrett! What are you doing!" everyone yelled as he reached the thing, throwing the laser away as the coils burnt out from overuse, and pulled his battle rifle and plasma blade, duel wielding as he fired at the damaged one crawling quickly towards him. It's shields were knocked out, and he had to fire carefully to hit the eye in the middle.

"get out of here! Now!" Garrett yelled just as the pelican flew up near the armored hull, waving for everyone to pile in as he fired towards the machine, the second Revenant walking across the ceiling towards the man.

"I'm not letting them hurt you anymore!" KOS-MOS yelled as she fired her built up charge, the machines dodging as she aimed her chain gun with a new clip and fired at the one at the ceiling, no more than pinging off it's shields just as it leapt. The second one jumped from it's crawl slightly just as it reached Garrett, and slammed one of it's clawed arms straight into his left thigh, ignoring his armor. Garrett grunted in pain as he threw KOS-MOS out of the way, firing his rifle at point blank of the eye, the other arm reaching out to try and finish him off as his attention was diverted to the falling Revenant from the ceiling, slamming his plasma blade into its chest as it was about to cut him in half.

The stasis field system suddenly started to turn on, and a large beam enveloped the Spartan and both Revenants as the molecules in the area were slowed to a crawl, the whole scene frozen in time as Garrett plunged his blade into the flying machine just as his rifle went off, the flash of the bullets leaving the barrel still visible at the tip as they stood there, stasis fully complete.


	15. Friends in High Places

"oh no" Archerson said as everyone rushed over to check on him, Garrett frozen stiff.

"how the hell do we undo this?" Jr. asked.

"I dunno how, the controls must have gone off when a sufficient amount of mass was placed on it. Garrett is frozen in that fight" Wilson said.

"well how to we unfreeze him private?!" Archerson barked.

"I dunno, it's a type 3, I wouldn't be able to make heads or tails of it, there are only a select few who knew bits of it and they're in our world" Wilson replied, apologizing to his senior commanding officer.

"no… we have to get him out… we can't just leave him like this…" Shion said as KOS-MOS walked up slowly, everyone watching her as she put her hand out, slowly running her hand over his faceplate as he stood there, motionless, stuck in horror and pain.

"there's another problem though" Michaels suddenly said as everyone looked at him.

"what's that doc?" Greys asked.

"even if we did get him out of there, his med lines were starting to flatline, and I don't know enough about the cybernetics in him and the augmentations to keep him up. On a second note, does anyone know how to get that armor off him? Cause I sure as hell don't, and that takes time. By the second, if we don't get the shit off him quick, he'll die" Michaels told them.

Everyone looked around distraught as their wounded comrade stood there. From one view, he was trapped, never to be in normal time again, but he was alive. From another view, he could be gotten out of, set free from his bindings of the stasis, but could die if he didn't receive immediate medical attention.

"shit… what are you saying, we leave him in there until we figure out how to save his life? Are you fucking saying this thing is acting as a temporary life support system for Garrett?" Archerson asked.

"Yes sir, that's what I'm saying. If we get him out, that's a big if, I don't know if I can save him" Michaels told them.

"so wait, you're telling me the only few people who know a shit about Spartans are in our world?" Greys asked.

"well, yes, actually. Dr. Halsey, she's heading the project" Wilson said.

"bullshit, no way she could have outlived 100 years of the Covenant War. No way man" Greys growled.

"unless she was in a temporal stasis…" Archerson whispered.

"wait, what? What do you mean?" Wilson asked.

"coded reports said she was alive and well in black ops in the event our squad mate ever had to get fixed up. She and a few other unknowns had escaped a temporal anomaly of classified origins that held her as well as others in a dimensional rift. While I obviously don't know the whole story, she knows how to get Garrett back to normal most likely" Archerson told them.

"um, problem with that sir, she's on our world" Wilson told him.

"so we GET her HERE. Who is coming through the dimensional rift to this world private?" Archerson growled.

"Covenant" Magen responded.

"are you loco sir? You want us to bust through Covenant lines to pick up a doc that may or may not save Garrett?" Helden asked.

"who said anything about breaking through enemy lines? Besides, in our current state, I doubt we'd make it past grid point one towards that portal, wherever it is. What we gotta do first is find it. Then, once we have a lock on, send a coded signal through. It'll relay off the Black Widow sat and hopefully get to the Doc. If she's just as I've read about her, she'll care about her pet Soldier to get over here somehow. We can cause a diversion on this side for the Covenant when everything is prepared, once of course we get a plan set up with her" Archerson told everyone. They gawked in silence at him.

"what? What I say?" the Captain asked.

"you aren't serious are you sir?" Magen asked.

"it's our only hope of getting him out corporal, do you REALLY wanna leave our friend in that thing?" Archerson said, thumbing behind him towards the stasis chamber.

"ok, so how do we find this portal?" Shion asked.

"we're on an enemy ship Shion, with stolen forerunner technology. SOMEONE must have kept a log of it's manuever trajectories and engine burn ballistics, heat emission, landing spots, even weather readings could be read as where it was in the world. Tracking 101 Shion" Archerson thumbed his nose.

"considering this ship is gonna capsize, we need to get it soon" Magen said.

"understood. Wilson, get on it yesterday, everyone else, help me move this damned thing into the pelican's drop bay" the Captain sighed and moved towards the frozen battle, pushing it towards the edge as the pelican came into land. KOS-MOS and T-elos assisted, bracing it as they moved.

Garrett wobbled in the machine and tipped, KOS-MOS rushing to catch him as he fell over.

"whoa, look at that… he can be shifted out of the normal stasis partition… at least we know we won't need to contend with the Revenants when we do get him out…" Wilson said.

"shifted out of the wha?" Greys asked.

"never mind, it means he isn't frozen directly to that area of existence. Think about how an iceberg flows. It's not connected to any one piece of land, and the ice blocks that break away are still part of the iceberg, they just aren't connected anymore. Get what I'm saying?" Wilson told him.

"oh" Greys said, still not getting it and shaking his head.

"push!" Archerson said as they slid the machine into the back of the pelican, before piling in as the ship rocked.

"Wilson…" Archerson said as the tech typed furiously into his computer.

"gimme a few more…" Wilson said as he watched code flicker across his screen.

"we don't have a few more! This thing is gonna drop out of the sky! Are you done yet?" Archerson yelled.

"done! Downloaded!" Wilson said as he closed his laptop and the pelican lifted off, breaking it's connection with the ship's computer and escaping.

-------------------------

Six hours later

-------------------------

"ok, so tell me again, where is this portal?" Archerson asked.

"inside the Ark entrance station sir, the one we got out of" Wilson told him.

"jesus we gotta go back in there?" Greys said.

"it was bad enough fighting the gnosis in there, now it's occupied by another force we don't understand" Shion said.

"a force that YOU don't understand, we know how they act Shion, don't forget that" Magen said.

"ok, we found the point of singularity to pass the info through, now we just need a real how to do it" Archerson said.

"the professor and I have been working on sliding the message across one of their AI carrier transmissions on the Revenants, and transmit it right along their own communications, then slip off and land on the black widow. They shouldn't even know we sent it if we disguise it as a trash code the Revenant is getting rid of or sending back for analysis" Wilson said.

"how long before we would have a solid translink established?" Archerson asked.

"dunno sir, that's if she's reading her email. If she isn't, we're fucked" Wilson told him.

"pray against the odds private" Archerson said as they sat in their camp on the Elsa.

------------------

Meanwhile

------------------

KOS-MOS sat on the edge of the machine as Garrett was laid out on a cot, his hands still frozen out in the fire fight. She stared at him, looking at the amount of damage his armor had taken. Fully one third of the armoring panels were crushed dented or ripped raggedly off, with what looked like blue ooze coming out of multiple wounds. She was confused slightly at that, she saw that he bled red blood, but that the blue ooze seemed to be coming from the armor.

"aren't you tired?" Shion suddenly said behind her. KOS-MOS looked up at her.

"I am fine Shion, really, you should be resting" KOS-MOS said before turning back around.

"what's wrong KOS-MOS? Please tell me" Shion asked.

"it is nothing. Do not worry about me" KOS-MOS said as her voice slightly wavered.

"KOS-MOS, you're my friend. You know you can talk to me whenever you feel like it. Is it because of Garrett? We'll find a way to get him out" Shion said.

Silence between the two as KOS-MOS stared.

"Magen had said that if Dr. Halsey could not undo what was happening here, that she might have to take Garrett back with her through the portal" KOS-MOS told her softly.

"then he'd get the treatment he needs. That would still work" Shion said.

"I don't want him to leave…" KOS-MOS suddenly said.

"huh? But, KOS-MOS, you don't want him to be healed?" Shion asked.

"no, it is not like that Shion. I… I don't want him to go back, and leave us… leave me…" KOS-MOS whispered.

"wait a minute… are you saying you… KOS-MOS, I don't know. Are you sure you feel this way towards him?" Shion asked.

"I do not know how to respond to him. This feeling when he is nearby, I've never felt it except when Mary and I were one, and only towards Chaos. Now that they are back together, I am… at a loss to know how I am to react towards him. Is this… is this love?" KOS-MOS asked.

"I… don't know KOS-MOS. He's strong, smart, noble, dashing, a good fighter, honorable, fairly hansom too. But KOS-MOS, he's a soldier, his personality… he's… he doesn't seem to blend in well in the normal world. He will always be a soldier. I don't know if he even thinks that way towards you" Shion tried to explain.

"What are you saying? That he wouldn't care about me?" KOS-MOS suddenly turned towards her friend, confused.

"no, no, I'm not saying that, it is just… well, it's difficult to explain. I don't quite think he sees what you show. I don't know how he would respond towards those kinds of feelings. After all, how would you act if you were still a machine with no heart, no soul KOS-MOS? How would you act towards a man telling you they cared about you?" Shion asked.

KOS-MOS looked down at the ground, thinking.

"but Garrett isn't a machine… he's human" KOS-MOS said.

"then… maybe, maybe he'll understand how you feel. The only way you'll know is when we get him back safe and sound" Shion said as she put her hand on her friend's shoulder, rubbing it comfortingly.

"I hope you are right Shion. I hope he'll understand" KOS-MOS said as she looked at the prone Spartan laying on the cot.

The blue haired woman's stomach suddenly growled.

"hehe, KOS-MOS, let's go get something to eat, you've been worried all day and sitting here this whole time. Come on, I'm sure everything will be ok" Shion said as she helped KOS-MOS up and towards the door, no one else in the medical bay but the wounded supersoldier.

-------------------------

2 hours later

-------------------------

"aww shit!" Wilson blurted out as Magen got up from her seat.

"ok, what now?" she asked over his shoulder.

"that's the third fucking time I've tried to relay the transmission through the Revenant's link up. Something is stopping it and ballooning it away from where I want it sent" Wilson said.

"have you tried to bounce it around? Maybe you hit a short frequency or something" Magen told him.

"nah, tried that, whatever it is keeps moving to block the transmission. It's almost as if it's alive… I'm running out of ideas" Wilson said.

"wait a minute, that reflect point right there… check the log now" Magen said as she squinted over his shoulder. He brought up the logs of his recent tries.

"there, right there, see that? That code… isn't that…" Magen started to say.

"an AI interference sequence. Oh shit, this could be a problem" Wilson said as he jumped out of his chair.

"Captain Archerson to base camp, we might have a problem soon" Magen said over the intercoms as she ran to help disconnect the computers.

"what sort of problem?" Archerson asked.

"We might soon have an uninvited guest inside the ship if we don't shutdown all nonessential systems now" Magen said just as the computer started to glitch.

"Shit, it's downloading, Greys, cut those wires over there!" Wilson yelled just as Greys leapt from his cot, half asleep but pulling out his knife and ripping through a pack of cables.

"still no good!" Magen said as she saw the computers downloading.

"how the hell… THE SERVER!" Wilson yelled as both of them ran towards the machine, Greys throwing a pistol to Magen who fired at it. The little computer sputtered and fizzled before it burst into smoke, shutting itself off.

"well, that was a close call… I guess we just have to be a bit more…" Wilson tried to say as the alarms went off.

"oh hell…" Wilson clinched his eyes shut as the download was reading complete and unloading hecta packets in the secondary computers in the Professor's room.

"damn it, move!" Magen yelled as the marines ran towards the room and busted in, the professor yelping and Scott screaming like a catholic school girl.

"uh oh…" Wilson said as he pointed, a holographic image starting to materialize and the door slamming shut behind them.

"well well well, with all the cutting of wires out there, I'm surprised I was able to get out of the Ark at all" a female voice said.

"Who the hell… wait… didn't the emergency reading before our squads were killed say something about an AI downloaded into the Ark's mainframe?" Greys asked as he held up a fire axe, ready to tear into more computer chips and circuits.

"gee, you'd figure you'd be smart enough to try and link up transmission and attempt to get me out of there" the female voice said as an image of a long haired pixie appeared hovering over the holo display, code flickering through her skin.

"oh, it's one of ours" Magen sighed.

"gee, that's the response I get? Oh it's one of ours? God, you guys made it difficult for me to get here!" the AI said.

"that isn't Morrigan it looks like" Greys said.

"duh Greys, I tend not to like looking like a scruffy male. The name's Athena" the pixie said as she sat on an invisible object, bringing her right knee to her chest.

"were you the one who was stopping me from getting that transmission out?" Wilson asked.

"wow, took you a while to figure that one out, yes it was me, and for good reason. You'd have triggered half the security systems and four different AIs to have seen it and alert the covenant. Nice try though, nearly missed that last one" Athena said as she smirked annoyed.

Just then Archerson and the rest of the crew entered into the room, rifles held and aiming around for intruders.

"what the… how'd she get in here?" Archerson asked as the team watched.

"she, well, downloaded herself into the ship sir" Wilson squeaked out.

"HOW?!" Archerson asked.

-----------------------

1 hour later

------------------

"so will the transmission work now?" Wilson asked as Athena floated over the table nearby, checking over his work.

"Yeah, it should, and without any problems in the future. At least I got to proof read the work before you blundered in on that. I even put my own personal touch on the note being sent back" Athena grinned ear to ear with a catty grin.

"uh oh… what did you add?" Wilson asked.

"it's already sent, you'll figure it out when she sees it" Athena said.

"IF she sees it, that's a big if" Wilson rubbed his forehead.

"she'll see it, I went through the double tap channels through UNSC VLT satellites. She'll know, trust me" Athena said.

----------------------------------------

Two days later

----------------------------------------

Majah sat down at the dining table she had set her purse on. The ball she was at was boring her. Most of the men there either wanted to know her research progress, idle chatter, or simply oogle at her body. She was by far the most beautiful woman at the place, as most of the other women were either married to old generals or didn't realize makeup can be a good thing or a hindrance to their faces. She was lucky in her genes, her long black raven hair spilling down her back to her waist as she wore her short white dress, emerald eyes squinting at the a small object being pulled out of her purse.

She casually blew away some of her baings near her eyes out of the way as she read through her cell phone's mail, unread messages and missed calls.

"hey gorgeous, how bout a dance?" a man said nearby to her.

"um, well, I'm sort of tired right now, sorry, but… oh wait, I think general Hopkins wants to speak to you" Majah as the man turned around, straightening his tie for the presentation before realizing he wasn't meeting the officer. He turned around to find that she had disappeared into the crowd with her purse in tow.

Majah slipped through a tight gathering of people only to have a hand come out around her shoulder and pull her towards the group, an old man introducing her to another military rep.

"ah, here she is, the right hand woman of Dr. Halsey. How is the work coming along? I hear you're making leaps and bounds with that brain of yours" the man said as he elbowed her in the side, she smiling as best she could to hide she didn't want to be there.

"and lovely as well. So tell me, Ms. Barrington, how do you like the dance? I know it's not quite the normal board meeting but I couldn't just hold one of those all the time" general Narois, the center man in the group she thought was named, said to her.

"oh, it's, nice, really" she smiled and felt awkward as everyone looked at her.

"did you know she graduated top of her class at sixteen from Harvard? It's incredible! Following in the footsteps of our greatest minds in history!" the old man, Mr. Jenkins she thought his name was, said. He was the owner of the mansion the ball was being presented in, and chattery as hell to her.

"Well, I'll let you get back to your mingling, oh wait, here comes my son, David. Come here David, there's someone I'd like you to meet" the general said just as Majah pulled out, sneaking away despite being the most obvious attraction at the ball. She adjusted a strap on her shoulder as her dress slid awkwardly, scratching slightly as she made it to the door just as she saw the message on her phone.

" urgent. Meet me outside immediately, I'm picking you up " was seen on her phone, text messaged to her by Dr. Halsey. She blew some baings out of her eyes again and left, walking down the stairs of the giant mansion only to have a large limo pull up quickly.

"get in" Dr Halsey said through the window as a guard opened the door for her.

"something's wrong isn't it" Majah asked.

"yes it is, something very wrong" Halsey said as Majah slipped inside, adjusting her small skirt to cover her thighs before crossing her legs.

"oh, Ms. Barrington! Um, you're, you're leaving already?" a man's voice was heard nearby as she looked out the window. It was the son of general Narois, David.

"she's occupied" Dr Halsey casually said out the window before the limo drove off, the stuttering young man with a slight case of acne looked around bewildered as he adjusted his tie.

"thanks for the rescue" Majah said, smirking.

"I never liked those kinds of meetings myself. Anyways, read" Halsey said as she threw a data pad to her, the young woman rubbing her green eyes from the smoke of the cigars and read the message.

VERIFY. CODE BLACK TRANSMISSION. AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL READING ONLY.

ODST GROUP IN DIMENSIONAL RIFT. COORDINATES REGISTERED AND VERIFIED GRID 3429.5 MARK 453.5 HEAD POINT 2. DOUBLE RIFT ACKNOWLEDGED. SPARTAN IS DOWN. REPEAT, SPARTAN IS DOWN. REQUEST LINK UP WITH ODST SQUAD. HOSTILES BLOCKADING ESCAPE AND MEDICAL. REQUEST ASSISTANCE ASAP. HELP US DR. HALSEY. END TRANSMISSION. DATE UNKNOWN. TIMESTAMP UNKNOWN.

"this has to be a joke, all transmissions have timestamps and date registrations" Majah said.

"unless it came from a black hole response or a supernova responsive area. This might be something similar. The response codes were from none other than Captain Archerson, in charge of the 105th Black Ops" Dr Halsey told her.

"Wait… that's…" Majah suddenly gasped.

"where Garrett is assigned to" Dr. Halsey said.

"alright, what do we need to do?" Majah asked.

"the Spartan IIIs are currently occupied, Kelly and the others are also at different points of the galaxy, we can't get in touch with them. I think I've found another way we can get to them though. Have you completed the finishing touches on the sub space armory MKII?" Halsey asked.

"why do you think I even went to the ball in the first place? The techs inserted everything needed inside now, no worries on that" Majah nodded.

"Good. We're heading to the station now" Halsey told her.

"Dr Halsey" Majah started to ask.

"What is it Majah" the old woman said.

"is it true?" the raven haired beauty said as she looked out the window.

"it seems to be true. Garrett is currently wounded, and by the looks of the excess transmission I didn't show you, by Covenant Revenants no less" she finished.

"you can't be serious? Those things are in working order?" Majah gasped, wide eyed.

"that's what I would like to find out Majah, that's what I'd like to find out" Halsey stated as the limo rushed towards the research station, escorted by four heavily armored warthogs.

"I hope we can get there in time" Majah whispered.

"when we reach the station, prep for emergency medical, and get to the armory and get issued a rifle. We may have to do this one on our own" Halsey said as she pushed her glasses up her nose with her middle finger.

"we won't have any support? Why a rifle? You aren't suggesting we fight the Covenant do you?" Majah asked wide eyed.

"no, but it may be necessary to accrue a ship… without the normal means" Halsey told her.

"where are we going?" Majah asked.

"last response came from the planet Vellius Prime, where the Helljumpers were dropped off. That was over two weeks ago. No response since then. From the information I could gather, the remaining squads other than Garrett's are KIA by encroaching covenant forces. The UNSC is currently trying to fight them off with the help of three Trinity carriers, but they're throwing everything they can at us. There's something down there that means a lot to them" Halsey told her.

"so you want us to go in without an escort and find out. Can't they just send another squad of ODSTs? I'm a research specialist Dr., a medic, and a technician. NONE of those give me combat clearance in a fire fight, or make me very good at handling a trained covenant soldier" Majah mocked.

"we all have to make sacrifices. Garrett did, why can't you" Halsey coldly said. Majah shut up at that remark, and stared out the window again.

"nearing security gate, stand by" the driver said as they handed in ID badges and drove through. The limo parked, and both ladies were let out, walking briskly towards the entrance doors.

"VERIFY" the door's automated command locks asked.

"Dr. Katherine Halsey" Halsey said.

"Dr. Majah Barrington" Majah told the door as it funneled through it's listing of vocal responses and tonal controls.

"targets verified. Opening door. Welcome" the automated voice said as both women entered, walking down a long hallway towards a dome room filled with machines and walled off cubicles.

"ah, Doc, how ya doin today?" a New York accent piped up as a holo image materialized floating nearby both women.

"Slim, route power through the testing area, disable security in that section and prime two emerg suits for us. Get the medical equipment loaded you know where and… prep the new suit and put it inside as well" Dr Halsey told the AI.

"new suit? What new suit?" Majah asked.

"just because you know MOST of the research about the Spartan 4 does not mean you know all of it. MJOLNIR MK10 is complete" Halsey told her.

"I thought the MJOLNIR suits were obsolete to the Caduceus design? Why are we bringing ancient armor to him?" Majah asked.

"the MJOLNIR armor stopped at MK7. What you didn't know is the Caduceus was used as test bed for new technology to emplace into the newer models of the MJOLNIR. Garrett was testing new technology on the field, so it was agreed on to give him the prototype vs. the standard armor. Considering it would have caused a great deal of suspicion having him running around with a suit that looked strangely like the original Spartans, any reporter nearby if he was on a habited world could snap a picture of him and place it on the news, blowing his cover" Halsey told her.

"now, get ready, we have a lot to do" Halsey said as she pulled a lab coat and went into another room, leaving Majah to her own devices.

"hey babe, looking sweet in that dress an all, but ya might wanna think about getting that suit on. Don't worry girlie, I won't look" Slim winked and gave her a thumbs up before disappearing. Majah sighed. She hated cocky AIs.

-------------------

1 hour later

-------------------

"are you ready?" Halsey asked her as she engaged the power transfers and oxygen controls on her suit.

"yes. So how are we going to get a ship? It's not like we can start firing at the local guards now" Majah asked.

"I've canceled that idea. I've called in a favor from a friend. He should be here now" Halsey said.

"who?" Majah asked as she looked around.

"I'm already here" a low voice said as the Elite turned off his camouflage. Majah gawked at the Arbiter walking forward to them. His armor was not the original ancient paneling he used to wear, but a brand new set up of white and gold, looking to be a hybrid of gladiator and part Elite combat gear.

"but… but I thought… how…" Majah asked, looking toward Dr. Halsey.

"Elites live to be three hundred years old, he's just reached roughly middle age. Thank you for coming Yasmee. I appreciate it" Halsey smiled slightly towards the Elite.

"it is not like you gave me much choice Dr. I still owe you that favor. After this we are even" The Arbiter growled and crossed his arms over his chest.

"alright. Let's get moving. Is your ship ready?" Halsey asked.

"it is always ready Dr., it is not like a human ship lazily sitting about. We are always prepared" The Arbiter said.

"let's go then" Halsey said as they left the building and walked towards a Phantom.

"what did you do to make him owe you a favor?" Majah asked as she wore a combat medic suit. She couldn't find a space suit that matched her bust size, as most of the suits were made in expectance to the women being flat chested. She wasn't, more so curvy in that department, and so she made Slim alter a combat medic suit with more gamma paneling and a sealant layer to allow a fair amount of vacuum usage.

"where to?" The Arbiter asked.

"Vellius Prime" Halsey responded.

"the forerunner transport station? It is under heavy fire right now. Are you sure?" The Arbiter asked.

"afraid Yasmee? I would have never expected it" Halsey quirked.

"an Elite fears nothing. I just didn't expect the both of you to enter a combat zone with nothing but light armor, especially when one of you isn't trained to fight" The Arbiter said, glancing at Majah who felt a bit uncomfortable.

"she'll be fine. If you didn't know, Majah was the coordinator for the Spartan that helped you on Sigma Resolute II when the brutes had you pinned. If she didn't tell him where you were, you wouldn't be standing here right now" Halsey told him.

The Arbiter looked right at her, surprised at her work. He checked his helmet's HUD and read through a hacked log of her data file. He already knew Dr. Halsey's record, but didn't know Majah's.

She was the one who gave relayed information to Garrett when he was on the field before he joined the ODSTs. Considering he didn't have an AI assisting him, it was natural. She was his guardian angel. She was also his armor technician, artillery relay command, communications officer and friend. She was the only one that went with him wherever he went, provided it wasn't a dark ops where he had to work in silence and cut off from assistance. Since Garrett had joined the ODSTs in assignment and reconnaissance, she had been transferred back to Earth to help with new improvements in his armament and local news. She was currently the new director of science at such a young human age, only 21 and she was in charge of most R&D specialist tasks. The only person above her was Dr. Halsey and two others, neither of which he was interested in hearing about.

"we are here" The Arbiter said.

"are you serious?" Majah asked. She had never flown in a Phantom before, pelicans yes, ex-covenant ships no.

"yes. I am" The Arbiter said as the back door opened and he climbed out, easily dwarfing the 5' 9" woman.

"I will have the grunts unload the cargo for you. We should leave immediately, we've been under suspicion for our fuel intake taking an unusual amount of time by your UNSC command" The Arbiter told them.

"alright, I assume we have quarters to ourselves?" Halsey asked. The Arbiter looked up and down both women before looking annoying and sighing.

"do you think this is a vacation? Can you not simply stay in an officer quarters?" The Arbiter asked.

"no, we can't. we humans like privacy, especially us women" Dr Halsey told him.

"very well, I will have a room cleaned for you, but do not expect much, this is a warship, not a passenger transport" The Arbiter scoffed then turned around and walked towards the bridge elevator.

"let's get settled in, it will take three days before we get to the planet, and we have work to do before then" Halsey told Majah.

"alright" she responded and lifted her small carriage of gear and emergency medical kit towards the quarters assigned to them. The engineer drone warbled something as it floated out of the door, holding multiple pieces of equipment in it's long tentacles before floating away, squealing at all the movement around it before losing interest in what was behind it and leaving the area.

Majah looked around as Halsey dropped her gear on the small table in the corner, before staring at the ovul shaped bunks. Both were incredibly large, and neither was padded. She frowned at the plainness of the room and it's condition. This was going to be a long flight.


	16. Reinforcements have Arrived

Majah woke up to a four fingered hand shaking her.

"you were called to the bridge an hour ago, why are you still asleep human?" an elite said. He looked to be the bridge tactical officer, Gadgasdai Morkoros. She just called him Gad.

"what? What's up?" she asked, rubbing her eyes before looking up. He was in full combat gear, something he wasn't in two days ago during the long flight. Most of the elites while not in a combat zone wore nothing but a skin thing suit, the hexagonal layout of the fibers and scales looking grayish and lizard like, blending in well with the Elite's figure. Now he was wearing all armor paneling on his body.

"we've reached the sector, Dr Halsey has been trying to call you for quite some time. You should be getting ready right now. She awaits you on the bridge" Gad said.

"uh… ok" Majah mumbled out before getting up, her T-shirt unwrinkling and her pajama pants shifting. Gad just stood there, waiting.

"I gotta get dressed you know" Majah told him annoyed.

"alright" Gad said, still standing there.

"OUT!" she pointed towards the door.

"I'm supposed to escort you to the bridge. Why leave now?" Gad asked.

"I need to change, without being seen! Get out now!" she said and motioned again towards the door.

"but-"

"NOW!" she screamed at him, quite annoyed.

"very well, I shall wait outside" he said confused. They normally didn't have women on the ship, and as such did not know how to address privacy between soldiers she thought. She sighed and let him slip outside, before blowing upwards at her baings. She started to get dressed and put on her combat medic suit, before buttoning up and walking out the door.

"are you ready now? Took you long enough" Gad said.

"Gad, I swear… never mind, let's go" she sighed and brought her palm to her forehead, annoyed he said anything.

Both walked up to the elevator and entered, the pad rising to the top before a double set of bulkhead doors opened onto the bridge.

"ah, she's here" Halsey said as she turned around, The Arbiter turning as well.

"so what are we going to do here?" Majah asked, staring at the view screen.

"currently? Our cloak was detected, and we're being hailed for combat clearance. It seems we're a welcome sight to the defenders. Take a look" Halsey told her and pointed.

The space ahead of them was littered with destroyed UNSC ships, some trinity cruisers and a good portion of covenant ships as well. Bodies floated silently through the vacuum as she watched, slightly sick to her stomach as she saw the wounds in some of the bodies from anti ship weaponry.

"currently they are asking for reinforcements down below, though I don't know how long we can keep them occupied on an answer" Halsey told Majah.

"we won't. we'll send a contingent of soldiers down" The Arbiter said.

"ok, that will keep them from hailing us anymore. Guess we should get to work at locating the missing ODST squad" Majah said.

"we will go with the contingent" The Arbiter told her.

"wait, I'm sorry, I must have missed something, what?" she gawked at him.

"he didn't stutter Majah, though I can see why you would be a bit apprehensive. The problem is, there are wounded down below, and they need all the capable medics down there they can get their hands on. There is also a… group of friends who will be joining us down below. Once we find the position of the marines and Garrett, it shouldn't take long to get them out" Halsey told her.

"you can't be serious? I've never been on the field before, I wouldn't know how to respond" Majah stared at Halsey, a bit worried.

"we will be fine. Just say yes and do what you can, we will handle everything else" Halsey told her.

"ok… I guess…" Majah mumbled out, saying a silent prayer to any god that was listening. Gad escorted her to the drop bay where a phantom was being prepped. Little grunts scurried towards the transport, all carrying either plasma pistols or fuel rod cannons, and two hunters lumbered up the ramp as well. She looked surprised, somewhat scared. She'd never seen a hunter up close, and she hoped she wasn't going to be standing next to one.

"lucky for you. You will be sitting in the front with the pilot and communications officer. We value our medics highly now" Gad told her as he took his stance at his spot, a small circle on the ground.

She looked around, other elites getting ready and priming their rifles, some carrying carbines, two gold elite commanders carrying energy blades. One cocky blue elite seemed to be duel wielding two plasma rifles, thinking he had the skill to handle it.

"you should take your seat soon, the phantom will be leaving" a grunt said up to her. His little beady eyes, now that they were on the human's side, looked cute in a way, like a puppy, but this one was carrying a fuel rod cannon and cocked a cell into the chamber. She read on his chest armor "Bazornag Glagurrez" which she just simplified to Baz in her mind. It made it easier for her to recognize certain people by shortening their names or getting nicknames for them.

She walked up the her seat just as the door was closing, and sat down. Two elites checked their equipment and primed the engines, one wearing odd bubble goggles over his eyes instead of the normal helmet, the pilot she realized.

"ready for take off. Leaving in one minute" the pilot said in a gruff low voice.

"understood. Doors are opening" the coms said as the pilot pressed some buttons and the phantom lifted off the ground. Majah noticed Halsey wasn't with her.

"uh, excuse me" Majah asked as the communication officer checked all channels.

"excuse me" she asked again, before he turned slightly, and looked surprised as he saw her mouth moving.

"What do you want?" he asked sternly and pulled an earpiece from one ear.

"is Dr. Halsey coming with us?" Majah asked.

"what? You would have one of your old come with you? She is still on the ship, as stated. She is doing her job in tracking down your demon. Let me guess, you wish to talk to her?" the com officer said as his eyelids slid vertically, looking at her.

"uh, ok" Majah said.

"very well, make it quick, we will lose frequency cohesion once we enter the atmosphere, and will not regain it until we land" he said and handed her a large object, with a hook. She tried her best to place it on her ear, but found it difficult from the size, so she just held it up.

"Majah, you will be going down alone. Find whatever information you can down below and have Gad retrieve it. He'll do the rest. All you have to do is help out a bit down there until you reach the supply depot the battle is taking place around. There's quite a few trenches and at least four bases emplaced under UNSC control. Don't worry, and grow a backbone. Halsey out" the doctor said and the com link cut. Majah looked a little annoyed at that before handing the object back, and sat as the phantom started to rock.

"brace for entrance, passing through the mesosphere" the pilot said. Majah held onto her medical kit for dear life as the ship started to shake, rocking around as they entered. She looked around, finding that the elites felt it was natural, checking instruments and watching for enemies.

"they have a lock on us! We need an escort immediately!" the pilot said suddenly.

"oh no… we're being fired on…" she whispered. She felt the shot hit behind, and the ship rocked hard.

"where is that escort! We're sitting ducks to those brutes!" the pilot yelled out.

"we are coming to assist! Standby!" a voice said over the channels, static filling around it.

Three Seraphim fighters shot by them and opened fire, taking out two blocky somethings she didn't know the name for.

"another squad approaching! They've locked on!" the lead Seraphim said as it alerted, the torpedo flying by and scratching across the phantom's armor as it dodged. It detonated five feet behind the engine, knocking the phantom end over end as the pilot tried to regain balance.

"I cannot compensate! See if you can get a lockdown on us!" the pilot yelled out as systems sparked.

"I can't believe this is happening…" Majah said as she curled up on her seat, holding her medical kit next to her.

"I've got you!" the com yelled through static as a Seraphim shot cables out and latched onto the phantom, trying to help it regain it's control.

"thanks for the assist Tordelmal. Much Appreciated" the com officer said. Majah knew little about the elites culture, except that when a mal was used at the end of the name, it usually meant the elite was female.

"never leave flying to a male" the female voice broke through the static again, and the pilot grinned, if Majah could call it a grin.

"landing in two minutes" the pilot told everyone just as a missile flew out and struck and engine.

"we're hit! We're going in!" the pilot yelled as the ship jostled Majah about, she falling out of her seat and sliding somewhat before they crashed.

---------------------

Majah woke up, sparks flying from computer systems as a fire was seen in the corner, flaring up before she felt her head, a large headache. She could see plasma fire outside the busted ramp door, as soldiers traded fire for fire, before a four fingered hand clamped down on her arm and lifted her up.

She couldn't hear what the voice of Gad as he tried to speak to her, all sounds muffled somewhat as her body adjusted from the crash.

"get up! Get up now! We must escape this crash site! Move to the trenches now!" Gad yelled as a brute was seen in the background, a fuel rod round punching clean into it's chest as Baz came up and ordered his grunts to lay suppression fire forward. A loud battle cry was heard from all the grunts as they threw plasma grenades in unison forward, before firing their fuel rod cannons and charged pistols forward.

She was half in shock as Gad dragged her forward, she struggling to get her legs working correctly again as she looked around for her medical kit. She found it under a dead brute at the door, and realized just how close she was to being killed had Gad not come to get her out.

Gad lead her out and fired his carbine towards the brutes and jackals, explosions seen nearby as hot flame and heat was felt outside. Majah ran towards a trench waypoint where three marines and two elites hunkered down, a machine gun firing unstopped as the brutes charged forward.

"great, they sent a medic up here, that was quick from the request" the corporal there said.

"uh, what?" Majah asked as a grenade blew up nearby and she ducked and covered from the shrapnel.

"this man needs care immediately!" the corporal said as he blind fired over the ridge of the trench, spraying the area with his assault rifle before sitting back down. She looked around and saw the third marine, holding his side as blood leaked out, coughing and sweating. He was laying on his side, his rifle melted somewhat and useless.

Majah didn't even have time to put her hair in a bun as she crawled across the ground through mud and dirt and came up next to the wounded soldier.

"hey, I thought it wasn't regulation to have your hair that long sweetheart" the private nearly whispered. He smiled at her before coughing up a bit of blood.

She ignored the comment and tried her best to get to work, nervous and shaken by the battle raging around her. She popped open the med scanner pad attached to her left arm and checked his vitals, and realized it was a clean shot, missing most of his organs and nicking a kidney. She popped open her medical kit and pulled out a med hypo, ejecting the syringe needle out of his sheath with a press of a button before inserting it into the hole in his armor. He grunted in pain before screaming and swearing, the genetically engineered microbes doing their job of knitting up the veins. The raven haired woman waited for the auto doc micro clone vat to pop open with a satisfying hiss as she pulled out the kidney, and cut the old out and before knitting the new one in place. She tried to pull out a biofoam dispenser before the corporal yelled out "ARTILLERY! GET YOUR HEADS DOWN!" and three shells slammed into the ground nearby, mortar tanks trying to destroy the small waypoint.

"we need air support pronto!" the second marine, another private said, and pulled out his com gear from his back before taking a plasma round to the head, flying back as his head still burned. Majah screamed as she saw the shot and covered her head, the elite manning the machine swearing something in his language as the gun jammed.

"ah shit we are so fubar!" the corporal yelled as brutes started to advance. Majah couldn't take this. She was crying as the Corporal crawled up to her and shook her.

"doc! He's dying here! He needs help! Please! Get it together and help him!" the corporal yelled as she looked up at him, tears flowing from her eyes before she looked at the marine still holding his side. His kidney was repaired, but the biofoam needed to be placed to keep him going, and the second layer of microbes still needed to be put on to knit up his skin. She nodded slowly and then crawled back, inserting the nozzle of the biofoam can and spraying it into the marine.

He screamed from the fire burning inside his innards before she injected him with another packet of microbes, and closed his armor before air support flew through and bombed the mortar tanks.

"hell yeah! Knock those bastards out!" the corporal yelled just as a hand came out over the trench and grabbed Majah by her hair, and she screamed as a brute shot fired into the trench. She was thrown out across the field as she rolled, and looked up to find a Brute roaring in anger as it stomped towards her. The trench was destroyed, both elites and the two marines inside dead from the grenade.

She started to crawl backwards before scrambling to turn around, the brute closing the distance quickly as it grabbed her hair again and snapped her head back.

"Scream more human!" he roared as he tried to smash her head into the ground.

"you no hurt her!" an almost synthesized voice said as a grunt jumped onto the brute's back and aimed his plasma pistol at his head, and fired. He clawed and yelped and barked as the brute struggled to get the little grunt off his back just as the pistol overcharged and blew the brute's head clean off, vaporized by the attack as the body fell forward onto the ground next to Majah. She turned around to see Baz sitting there, trying to help her up.

"thank you" she said as he chuckled and beamed, barking in approval as he looked around.

"it not safe here. Need move now, go go!" Baz said as he motioned for her to follow him. She crawled across the ground as rifle fire was heard nearby, a second trench only forty feet from her location.

She noticed Baz's shooting was quite good, the white armor covering over him showing he was indeed a high rank.

"eep! Run now! Run run!" Baz yelled out as he broke down onto all fours, running across the last few feet as Majah stood up and ran. Plasma fire lanced out to try and drop her, as yelling was heard from nearby.

"what the hell? Is she crazy?!" a voice was heard just as a warthog drove up behind her, spraying the area with chain gun fire as it tried to cover. She fell into the trench and rolled, her hair starting to mat from sweat and crying and mud as she regained her bearings. Baz watched as he realized there was only one marine, now dead in the trench. It was abandoned as the lone marine's corpse was still smoking from plasma burns.

"there com gear, you use, me cover" Baz said as he watched the sides of the trench, waiting for enemies to come nearby.

Majah had never called for help before as she picked up the receiver, com chatter breaking out all around.

"FALL BACK NOW!" was suddenly screamed as mortar rounds started to arc through the air towards them.

"oh no… help! Anyone! Please help!" she started screaming into the small receiver.

"415th! Flank left! Flank left damn it!" was heard as the rounds still arced toward them.

"I need help! Anyone! Please!" she yelled, breaking down crying.

"isolate that signal! Who the hell is this?" was heard suddenly.

"my name is Majah Barrington, I'm a medic, I need help! Please!" she yelled out.

"who? Where the hell are you?" the voice asked.

"I uh, I'm uh, at, the front zone, I don't know! We're about to be hit by mortars!" she yelled.

"intercept those rounds! Fire finder retract and tag those! I need flights two and four in there!" the voice yelled in the background. The mortar rounds suddenly disappeared and multiple missiles lanced out into the air and knocked them out. Three long sword fighters streaked through the air, one breaking off and strafed a group of brutes while the other two bombarded ahead.

"now then, what's going on? Where are you? Wait a minute, Majah? Shit, that new chick they sent down from the elite's ship? Fuck, you were dropped in the wrong fricken zone!" the voice said.

"please, I don't know what to do, I've lost my medical kit, what do I do?" she asked still crying.

"beats the fuck out of me! We're trying to pull back and regroup on grid point alpha! Your squad should be nearby, try and link up with them and get an escort. Surprised they didn't do that ahead of time. Medics are precious down here" the voice said before suddenly yelling "ALL SQUAD LEADERS THIS FREQ, FALL BACK TO PRIMARY LZ. THERMALS ARE IN THE CAVE, POSSIBLE CAMOUFLAGE IN WET SECTOR 43 ZULU" and the com link swapped to normal, chatter erupting and she realized she wasn't gonna get anymore out of the man.

"damn it… this can't be real…" she yelped out and held her head, sobbing. Baz crawled up to her and patted her on the shoulder before a large form crested the side.

"commander! It's you!" Baz squealed in joy as Gad leapt down, six black ops elites flanking and covering.

"I apologize we didn't get to you earlier, we tried to regroup from the crash site, but when we reached your original position it was already abandoned. We need to get to the supply base, our armored columns are moving in to support" Gad said as he looked down at Majah, crying on the ground. She was dirty, grungy, and looked like she was in shock. He didn't know what to do.

"I found this in the other trench, we still need your help if you're willing. There are many wounded in the area" Gad said.

Majah looked up at him, her eyes red from crying as tears ran down her cheeks.

"I wanna go home. I shouldn't be here. I can't do this" she pleaded.

"but you are here, and with that there are people dying nearby. They could be saved if you come to your senses" Gad said slightly gruffly. She resumed her original position and curled up, scared.

"I thought with your reputation as the coordinator for a demon you would be fearless. I guess not. There are soldiers dying to protect this area, to protect you. If you do not move to assist them, they will have died in vain. There is no honor in defending someone who will do nothing to make their sacrifices meaningful" Gad told her.

Majah looked up from her position and stared up at him, who laid down the medical kit in front of her.

"it is up to you to decide to help, we cannot force you. I will have two elites stay here, the second phantom flight will be here shortly" Gad said as he motioned for the others to follow, he starting to walk towards the original landing location. Baz followed.

Majah stared at the medical kit then at the com rig as it chattered for backup, then air support, and then finally a medic. She heard it repeat multiple times, over and over, and no one responded to it. The air support was called in, reinforcements were sent to the attacked camp, but no medic.

"we need to help that camp" Majah yelled out to Gad and stood up, looking at him as he turned around.

"are you sure?" he asked.

"I won't let those men die. But… I can't do what I just did" she told him, trying to wipe away tears from her eyes and still feeling very unsure of herself.

"you won't need to. Elites! We're escorting this medic to camp point four! Take up flanking positions!" Gad barked out, and two elites took up position behind her, all igniting modified jackal shields on their arms and aiming their rifles around.

Majah picked up her medical kit and cleaned off some of the dirt, then followed Gad as the elites escorted her towards the medical emergency.

--------------------------

4 hours later

--------------------------

"report" The Arbiter asked.

"currently squad is moving out of the supply base, on vehicles. The second phantom flight made it through without incident and brought in reinforcements. I'm getting a message from Commander Gadgasdai. Should I put him through sir?" the com officer asked. Halsey looked up at him from her post at the science station.

"put him through. Commander, I trust you have found some information useful to us" The Arbiter asked.

"yes Arbiter, I have, or should I say the medic did. She did quite well and was lucky enough to stumble upon a secondary entrance to the supply base. We were able to extract the data cores. Requesting a pick up immediately, the area is still swarming with brutes" Gad said as he drove a Shadow, two elites holding their seat on both sides as Baz took up a heightened seat on the back turret. Two ghosts and two warthogs escorted the shadow as it hovered away at full speed, Majah curled up on Gad's lap, asleep from exhaustion. She had saved over one hundred men in the time she had been there, learned to call in artillery with just a rangefinder nearby, and repaired a damaged Scorpion's turret so it could return fire on an encroaching armored column.

Majah lay there cradled on top of him as he drove, blood splattered on her armor, mud caking with blood on her cheeks. Before she had fallen asleep she seemed to be on auto pilot, working away on a computer, glazed eyes drooping from the stress and adrenaline forcing it's way through her veins as the elites watched over her.

--------------------

2 hours later

---------------------

Majah woke up to find she was laying in her pod, her armor stripped. She looked around shocked but realized her under suit was still worn, the wet suit still covering her body. She checked her chrono to find she had slept for three hours, one of which was while traveling back through a battle zone. She wonder who had taken her armor off her, and saw that Halsey was sitting in the corner, reading.

"how are you feeling" Halsey asked.

"better, I think…" Majah said, looking off at the wall.

"I hear you did quite well down there. Much was accomplished. We've gained a foothold on the perimeter of the supply base I heard, which means the covenant are attempting to force us back. I doubt they'll succeed thanks to our control of the surrounding space" Halsey chattered off as Majah sat there.

"Doctor" Majah said.

"what is it" Halsey asked.

"don't ever make me do that again" Majah told her sternly.

"we all must make sacrifices Majah. I suggest you learn to cope. Otherwise you won't keep that director title for very long. Did you know that four of the wounded men you saved today were ODSTs? Did you also know that all four of them were either lieutenants or Captains? All of which have placed a commendation for your quick response" Halsey told her as she threw a data pad towards Majah.

The Raven haired woman picked the pad up and read through, noting two of the men had called her a "guardian angel" out on the field, and glad that she had landed. She checked the KIA list and realized over half the medics were killed before they had gotten in orbit, sniped at by jackals.

"did I really do that much…" she whispered to herself.

"you did more than that, we now have a fix on Garrett's location. The problem is, we get to go on a little trip before we see him" Halsey told her.

"where?" Majah looked interested.

"it requires the sub space armory to get to him though" Halsey smirked.

"it can't hold organic life though. It's a complete vacuum in the thing, only for storage" Majah interjected.

"not unless we wear life suits to keep us alive until the opposite side engages the ejection controls. We'll just override. You did remember to make sure that was fully functional correct?" Halsey's smirk grew deeper.

"we won't know where we appear though will we? I mean, if Garrett is wounded, that means they could be in a battle zone. We could be walking right into more covenant" Majah asked.

"I somehow doubt that. And even if we did, it's not like we will be going alone. We found our friends" Halsey told her, the smirk turning into a true smile.

"who?" Majah asked just as the door opened, two elites gawking as in walked 8 Spartans.

"ma'am, sorry for being late, traffic" a male voice was heard. It was Tom. Ash and Lucy were right behind him, as well as Olivia, Mark, and Kelly. Linda and Fred stood behind those.

"but… how?!" Majah leapt up.

"they were with me when we were in the micro dyson sphere. John wasn't able to make it, he's aged more than the others since he was in normal time. He's… retired, in way, back on Earth. I'll introduce you some day" Halsey said as all Spartans nodded in unison, solemn respect for another Spartan.

"but… I thought… never mind, I don't wanna open that can of worms… how many are there?" Majah asked.

"currently this is blue team, red team is still in the quarters, originally squad Katana. They're coming with us" Halsey told her.

"still think you don't have backup?" Fred asked over the other Spartan's shoulders as they let him through.

"I'd be surprised if the covenant didn't run flat out after seeing you guys!" Majah gawked.

"Fred, please take the others back to your quarters, I'll speak to you in a little bit" Halsey asked and Fred nodded, the Spartans filing out as the Elites looked wary.

"I can't believe you got all of them here… that's incredible… I've… only seen Garrett… he's the only Spartan I've known…" Majah said softly, and for the first time, Halsey saw her blush slightly. She could tell something was up between the woman and the Spartan she's helped to care for.

"they aren't as strong as Garrett is, though Kelly is close to being as fast. The augmentations in they've recently gained are putting them on par with Garrett, though they have yet to receive their new armor" Halsey told her.

"wait, there are multiple suits? You made more than one?" Majah asked.

"there are multiple Spartans, why single out one when all should gain the benefit? While they don't have Garrett's psionic abilities, they have something he doesn't have. Experience" Halsey explained, and Majah had to agree. The Spartans she just saw had more experience in more battles than Garrett could shake a stick at.

"so, how do we get to him? And when do we leave?" Majah asked.

"get geared up, we leave in three hours, the transportation matrix is almost primed to load the pelican we gained with us onboard. Once it sucks us in, we hit the override before the matrix return gravity and tack point condenses us, and throw us out the other end" Halsey told her.

"I'll be ready" Majah told her as Halsey got up and pulled at her suit.

"see you then" Halsey said as she walked out to go talk to the other Spartans.

Majah beamed. She was gonna see Garrett again, and bring friends along with her.


	17. Missing In Action

"is everyone ready?" Halsey asked the group. Red team was going to stay behind and look after things on their side while blue team would continue through into the armory rift and be transported to the null space carrying all the equipment. Blue team consisted of Fred, Linda, Kelly, Ash, Tom and Lucy. Olivia and the others would stay behind with red team and guard their backs and give them a relay point back out once they retrieved their fallen comrade.

"hold that thought. I need an air check on my suit" Majah asked as she tweaked some controls on her suits air supply. They all had to be fully encased for a vacuum environment for the one minute they would be floating in the armory before the condensers responded to the new equipment and try and crush their atoms to save space.

"scanning now" Fred said as he did a quick poke and prod of her suit's air and diagnostic systems.

"what's wrong Majah?" Halsey asked.

"something's odd, I have a weird compression response happening" she responded as she watched her suit try to respond to an unknown reading.

"that might be the frequency shift from the open rift. It sends most equipment into a reflective state of emergency. I learned that quickly with a sniper scope a long time ago. It shouldn't have much effect" Linda told her.

"if you say so" Majah said as the Spartans surrounded her and Halsey.

"going somewhere without us?" Gad said suddenly as he walked into the bay.

"we're about to cross through the threshold, why?" Majah asked before Halsey told her to be silent.

"Majah, we don't have time for this. That rift is gonna close very soon" Halsey told her sternly.

"but… wait. Hold on, just a few more seconds" Majah asked before jogging up to Gad, Baz coming up behind him, seemingly fully suited for vacuum as both Elite and grunt stood there.

"what's wrong?" she asked.

"we are offering our assistance if you require it. I have a debt to repay the demon you are going to save, as does my lieutenant here" Gad said as he motioned down to Baz. Majah was surprised, she didn't expect Baz to be in such a position to be acknowledged for his voice in the trinity.

"we already have enough assistance, but thank you for the offer" Halsey told them suddenly.

"ma'am, with all due respect, may I speak freely?" Fred asked.

"I don't have a rank Fred, you can ask away" Halsey told him.

"having backup may not be such a bad idea. If Garrett is indeed in a combat zone, in uncharted territory, having someone covering our backs might put us in a good position to retrieve our squad member more efficiently" Fred told her. Majah was stunned at all the new information she was learning. She had known Garrett since she was eighteen, and even now was just finding out he was a part of a greater force. She had learned everything she could about him, and yet now was realizing even she didn't have access to most of his data records, only who he was towards her.

"I understand that, but, do you really want them to assist us?" Halsey asked.

"are you afraid we will turn our backs on you? The trinity and the human race are together now Doctor. Your squad member… is our squad member. Until we know an elite is dead, we will not abandon a lost comrade unless ordered by he himself" Gad told her.

"I doubt Garrett has the authority to do that Commander" Fred said as he remembered his field promotion Kurt had given him of Lieutenant. He wasn't at the height that John was before him of Master Chief, but he frankly didn't want to fill his position. The shoes were too large to attempt with the legend his friend had become.

"it is not a matter of rank Lieutenant, it is a matter of honor. Even a lowly private has a right to refuse aid and die with honor and dignity and order his squad to abandon him, for the greater good. Even the Arbiter is held by that binding oath. To continue on the march of glorious salvation, those who sacrifice themselves for their kind will have their names honored in stories of legend, their names not lost to time" Gad said, his tone filled with pride.

"as is such, Fred, there is something I need to address with you once we reach touch down" Halsey told him.

"understood. We still don't have an answer to whether they should come though ma'am" Fred asked.

Halsey stared at both the grunt and elite standing there, waiting.

"if they want to help, I can't think of a reason to stop them from doing so. Sync your com frequencies to-" Halsey started to say.

"freq is locked and rotating, green blips acknowledged. Welcome to the fold" Fred said as Gad dropped his armor mask fully over his face and sealed it, and checked his ranger suit for flight integrity.

"clear the zone in five, prepping for entrance" Halsey said.

----------------------------------

One minute later

----------------------------------

"what the hell is that?" Jr. asked as he aimed his pistols at the rift.

"I… don't know, Captain was that what you came out of?" Shion asked as she stared at the ripple in the air.

"beats the hell out of me, we were knocked out for our nonstop flight to hell, somehow I don't think that's a teleportation field though": Archerson said as he squinted at the light.

Suddenly multiple forms walked out, and Jr. readied to fight, KOS-MOS materializing her chain gun as T-elos seemed to watch, amused. In walked six Spartans, prepped to rip anything apart that decided to tangle with them, easily more than a match for the ragtag group as they aimed their rifles at Shion's group with jackal shields walling them off from each other. Any projectile sent in their direction wouldn't do more than ping off the reflective circular shields each green armored warrior held on their arms.

"whoa, it's like a group of… Garretts… are those his squad?" Jr. asked.

"sort of. Those are pretty much his brothers and sisters. I'd suggest you put down your weapons guys, I seriously doubt you'd be able to handle them prepared like that" Archerson said as Helden whistled as the other marines stared. They'd never seen so many Spartans in one place at one time.

Majah suddenly stumbled forward with Halsey, Gad and Baz following behind as the rift closed.

Majah collapsed on the ground, pulling off her helmet and vomiting on the ground.

"guess the suit really was acting up" Fred mumbled on a secure channel to the other Spartans.

Halsey kneeled and helped Majah up, handing her a handkerchief she was carrying to wipe away the spittle on her mouth.

"Ma'am, we have company" Fred said he motioned towards the people twenty feet away from them in the AMWS bay.

There was a long pause and silence filled the air before Archerson walked forward.

"I'm Captain Archerson of the 105th ODST Strike Recon squadron, the one your Spartan 003 is connected to. I take it you're here cause of our distress signal?" the Captain said as he stared at the six visored soldiers aiming their rifles at them.

"stand down" Fred said slowly as he realized they were ODSTs, and all Spartans suddenly were at ease.

"where is our injured Soldier Captain" Halsey said behind Fred and walked around him.

"ma'am, I don't really know how to tell you this, but-" Archerson tried to explain.

"his life signs are almost crashing but frozen somehow, he's in the other room it looks like" Majah said as she stared at a readout on her left arm.

"how the-" Michaels said as he noticed the medic armor on her.

Spartans escorted Majah and Halsey into the next room, Shion still wondering what was going on.

"dear god…" Halsey whispered as Majah gasped. Garrett was lain on the cot, his hand frozen stretched out with his blade still in hand, his rifle still firing in the other as both Revenants were broken away and set aside, the blade still fully active even in the time warped state.

Majah ran straight to him and fell to her knees, touching at the holes the revenants had made in his armor, pulling back each time almost as if they had burned her.

"what did they do to him…" Majah whispered, her eyes watering.

"ma'am, we have some stuff to talk about if you want to" Archerson said.

"yes Captain, I believe now would be the time to give us a full briefing on just exactly what the hell went on here" Halsey said as she placed some glasses on her nose ridge.

------------------------------

Three hours later

------------------------------

"so that's what happened" Archerson told them. The Spartans looked eerie, all of them standing behind the two women as they sat, reading through all the data. Gad and Baz stood against the wall, watching the whole thing, and it wasn't like they wished to be apart of most of it. Almost everyone there besides the group they came with were staring at them.

"they look like gnosis almost" Jr. whispered.

"especially the little one over there, how is it they won't attack us?" Allen whispered back.

"I dunno, maybe they tamed them or something?" Jr. said.

"we were not tamed little human, don't presume to think an elite can be controlled except by our binding honor and upholding our family name. we live for battle, something you could not possibly understand" Gad growled, hearing the entire conversation. Both men jumped at finding out they were heard, and T-elos again was amused at seeing them look afraid at the huge alien.

"unfortunately, we don't know how to get him out of the field" Magen said as Halsey finished reading the data they had compiled.

"we might have the coordinate data to unphase him out of that stasis" Halsey said.

"you do?!" Shion exclaimed.

"yes Shion Uzuki, I may, however, it isn't exactly some simple process, I'll have to take a look at the machine that did this" Halsey said as she looked up from the pad she was staring at.

"but if you know the coordinates to get him out, why not just do it?" Shion asked.

"that's the exact same thing as playing with dynamite. If I don't know anything about what the machine can do then I cannot do anything to undo it. I said I may have the coordinate data yes, from Onyx, however it does little to change the current situation here if I do not know anything about unknown technology we have not encountered before. Simply flipping a switch and hoping for the best with the data we have effectively says you want Garrett to be torn apart or disintegrated molecule by molecule, or completely sent into another dimension of existence. Use your head. You above everyone here should realize the risks that are involved with this type of unknown, considering your work on that KOS-MOS unit there" Halsey said.

"How did you… how did you know about that?" Shion stuttered as she looked at KOS-MOS shocked then back at Halsey.

"Athena didn't send me back just a request for assistance, she downloaded most of your ship's database through the com bandwidth. Think, would we really come without knowing who our allies and enemies on this side would be?" Halsey countered with her own question, pushing her glasses up her nose and staring sternly at Shion.

Both women were squared off, and by the looks of it Halsey was easily outmatching the young woman.

"guys, with all due respect, this shouldn't be a pissing contest, we really should get some effort put in on how to figure out the stasis chamber" Wilson suddenly said.

"agreed. Majah, help their technician extract any data from the stasis field generator and compile a systems listing of commands. I'll translate afterwards once you've gained the data" Halsey ordered.

"is there anything we can do?" Shion asked.

"stay out of their way" Archerson suddenly said sternly, and she looked up to find he wasn't meeting eyes with her, and realized her predicament. Her group was outmatched in this field of experience, Halsey having more interaction with forerunner technology, language and effects, not to mention had the resources at the moment to do what she wished.

"Archerson, have your team stay at range for the testing of the machinery, I don't want anyone having an unknown reaction should Majah and Wilson activate a trip line" Halsey told him.

"understood ma'am" Archerson responded.

"Wait, if something goes wrong? What about your two techs near it?" Shion asked, motioning towards Wilson and Majah.

"they know the risks" Halsey said, annoyed.

"enough talk, let's get this done and help our Spartan. I'll prep the medical pad" Halsey told everyone and got up, seemingly dismissing the meeting with those words.

"how can that woman be so arrogant…" Shion started to mumble as KOS-MOS came up next to her.

"Shion" Archerson said behind her as everyone filed out of the room.

"what?" Shion asked as she turned around.

"do yourself a favor. Don't butt heads with her. She's trying to save someone who shouldn't need saving, has never needed this much extensive medical work on in the past and frankly in the past week we've gone from a fully suited Super Soldier to a time compressed life support vegetable. And all while being on this ship. Her beliefs that you can handle things are a little low right now, given the fact Garrett just went through hell to cover our backs" Archerson told her.

"he was trying to save KOS-MOS!" Shion yelled.

"and that cost him. Shion, we aren't just fighting on one front anymore, we have the covenant and Albert as well as some very disgruntled colonists landing all over the place on this planet. There's no stable government for light years except back through the rift the Doctor just came from, and that rift for all we know is a one way ticket this way. There's gnosis rampaging throughout the world, we're counting down to doomsday and we have no actual tactical LZ point we can land on that isn't a down right hot zone for the next week. We're running out of resources and frankly running out of options as well. Let her do what she does best, and realize you're outclassed. She's just trying to protect her super children" Archerson told defiantly.

Shion was silent as she stared at Archerson after his rant, before he sighed and walked out. She sat down as KOS-MOS tried to comfort her.

"just because someone thinks they know best doesn't mean they do. I'm tired of everyone telling me to stay out of things and go about a boring life. We know Garrett now too, he's our friend as well, right?" Shion asked KOS-MOS.

"Shion, we have known these people for a short time. They've defended us, laughed with us, worked with us, they've done everything they can for us so far. They've gained nothing, not even a shred of hope of going back to their home yet, and now they've lost one of their most valuable people to a powerful enemy. Now I believe it is time to give them that hope, help them as they helped us" Mirie told her as Shion looked depressed. She looked to KOS-MOS for assistance, who nodded in agreement.

"oh please, once we've helped them they'll return through that rift and never come back. With the number of enemies we have at the moment, you would expect them to not turn tail and run? Humanity has always been pathetic that way" T-elos commented in the corner, staring out at the stars through a window.

"T-elos, our humanity may be weak and pitiful, we may have reached our end and some have lost hope, to become gnosis and lash out at others, but their humanity, their people, even in the face of impossible odds, against the Covenant, they've fought on, to survive. I've learned much about their history from Magen, and she has told me of the horrors they have witnessed and felt throughout the years. I, for one, believe they are honorable, strong, and indeed worthy allies, worthy of being called friends" Mirie replied.

"you're right. We need to find a way to help them get Garrett out of there. I'll… try my best not to step on anyone's toes" Shion sighed.

"do not worry Shion, the stress on this ship is widespread. I do not believe you will have to worry once we have saved Garrett" Mirie told her and smiled.

"thank you Mirie. Let's go see what their doing and see if we can be of any assistance" Shion said.

---------------------------------

Four Hours later

---------------------------------

"so the red crystal goes in this socket?" Wilson said with his head pushed into a cubby hole of the stasis generator.

"I don't think so, the socket is pulsing with a diametric positive feedback loop. I think we'd overload the ignition pods" Majah said as she typed away at her portable mainframe as she tested different plug points on the machine with power prods.

"hmmm, that looks interesting…" Wilson suddenly said.

"what does?" Majah asked as she blew her baings out of her eyes again.

"there's a forward power inversion control in here. Can you get a reading on the thing Athena?" Wilson asked.

"it's hard to pinpoint, but there's definitely a control reaction grid there. Gimme a few seconds" Athena said as she floated over her holographic matrix pod.

"um, Athena…" Wilson suddenly said as certain pieces of equipment started to turn on inside the generator near his head.

"don't worry, I'm diverting the power to the grounding generator we hooked up, you shouldn't have anything happening" Athena warned him.

"yeah, how many times have I heard that one before from mine technicians…" Wilson groaned as he remembered memories of him running through a "deactivated" exploding plasma mine field.

"oh… my… god…" Majah suddenly blurted out as Athena started to download huge amounts of conversion data onto her laptop.

"what?" Wilson wiggled out quickly and ran to her side as she stared at the screen in surprise.

"this is… am I really looking at… Athena, what is this?!" Majah yelped out.

"forerunner data logs, activation routines and subroutines, defensive grid outlines, power emissions and feedback data. Some of it is junk, dead code from such long exposure to time and no maintenance, but that's most of it" Athena told them as she reappeared over her matrix pad and flitted around.

"Wilson, get me another hard drive! It's still coming in!" Majah yelled out as she checked her laptop's carriage, the drives reaching full limit and inserting two data crystals into the side to attempt to slow the download.

"transfer it to the server, I'll throw some more blades in" Wilson said as he ran to the base camp and unlatched a case of data blades, each with over one hundred data crystals layered out on each side and slid them into the server.

"Majah to Halsey! I think we just hit the mother load of forerunner data, and untouched by Covenant to boot!"

-----------------------------

One hour later

-----------------------------

"is there anything we can use?" Allen asked.

"how the hell should we know? Ask the docs there" Archerson responded as Allen backed away.

"alright, just tweak this here and-" Momo mumbled to herself as the generators started to whine to life inside the stasis containment unit.

"it works!" she squealed in delight, everyone sighing in relief.

"how did you figure it out?" Majah asked.

"the data logs were in forerunner, mostly compressed tech data on running emissions and power diversion, nothing really useful, but there was a log hidden BEHIND those logs that gave every single control algorithm used to tell the machine what to do. All we had to do was translate the information into something we could read, with Halsey helping with that, and type out a new code to reverse the effects, and insert it into the machine. It knows English now!" Momo beamed as she readied to activate the machine.

"Wait!" Halsey told her.

"huh?" Momo asked in confusion.

"first of all, Garrett hasn't been placed on the machine yet, you may be wasting the last available energy the thing has before we can actually put it to effect, and second, for all we know it could release the revenants out of stasis at the same time. Add on the fact we are not fully set up yet in the medical bay to receive a fully armored Spartan, nor the available transportation up to the medical bay yet, and you want to turn it on to see if it works. Momo, please. keep it simple for the time being" Halsey scolded her.

"uh… wha… er…" Momo tried to speak, but then realized it would just dig her a bigger hole, so she remained silent.

"now, give us some time to prepare for our outgoing traveler. Fred, I want all Spartans ready to open up on those things should the stasis field revert them back as well. Michaels, help me get the medical bay prepped for surgical emergency. I want that place set up for a code blue. Majah, you're with me. Wilson, stay here and monitor the power emissions, let us know if they start dropping. Everyone else, stay clear of us and this room. I'm worried with the little maintenance the stasis unit has received may give off unwanted radiation or chemical effects we don't yet know about. Wilson, get a hazmat suit and get that thing moved to the airlock. When Garrett is brought back to our time, if it starts going wonky I want it shock dropped" Halsey ordered. The marines acknowledged and Spartans winked green on her glasses.

"I… I didn't mean to…" Momo mumbled sadly as if she did something wrong.

"it's ok Momo, don't worry about it. Thank you for the help though on the translation process. Your transport column research really helped on the stasis leveling energy transfer readout" Majah told her and smiled. Momo sighed in relief

"is there anything we can do?" KOS-MOS asked.

"do you have any medical experience?" Halsey asked.

"before I was… I… I was trained in emergency medical" KOS-MOS replied, trying to find the words.

"on field or off?" Majah suddenly asked, much more confident in her abilities now.

"on" KOS-MOS told her.

"that does little to help us here. Just help Michaels with the prep, then your out of the way" Halsey said as both ladies walked to the elevator and floated up.

"I… I want to help…" KOS-MOS whispered as Shion stared at her.

"we've tried KOS-MOS. I guess the best thing is to wait and hope he makes it through. We'll be waiting for him once he's safe and well, won't we KOS-MOS" Shion hugged her friend.

"yes. Yes we will" KOS-MOS replied, smiling. She had so much she wanted to tell the wounded Spartan, especially about her heart.

---------------------------

Six hours later

---------------------------

"we're good to go" Michaels told them.

"KOS-MOS. Out. Now" Halsey ordered as KOS-MOS put down the last syringe on the table. KOS-MOS nodded solemnly and walked out, waiting with the others in the restaurant.

"converting in five" Wilson reported in as the Spartans watched the revenants in the corner, contorted in ripped pieces as they aimed multiple Lasers and rocket launchers at the frozen machines. Archerson had aimed the turret of the Scorpion directly into the corner, ready to assist if necessary as he watched out of his orange helmeted hazmat suit.

"popping the bubble in three, two, one" Wilson sounded out as he dropped the power and activated the machine, Garrett propped inside the field deflector cups.

"it's working!" Wilson said as he reported up to Halsey.

"elevator primed?" Halsey asked.

"release locks for emergency lift have been primed, it'll reach our floor in less than six seconds" Majah said.

"he's warm… he's dropped! No revenant's functional! Get that man to the evac lift now!" Archerson roared out to the Spartans as they ran to pick up Garrett, collapsed on the ground and rush him to the elevator.

-------------------------

Eight hours later

--------------------------

"any word from the medical bay yet?" Allen asked.

"you just asked that five minutes ago, nothing yet again. They're still working on him" Magen told them.

"he must really be messed up" Helden mumbled.

"Helden, you have no idea" Ash said as he leaned against the wall, his Caduceus helmet off and left on the counter of the bar. The whole room was silent, waiting.

"maybe we could-" Jr. was about to speak as everyone stared at him.

"don't even think it. If we walk in to see how their doing it could kill him if we distract them. They'll come when they come" Archerson said coldly in the corner as he waited.

Halsey walked in suddenly, slowly, and looked like she had been run over by a truck. She was covered in blood, her medical smocks changing partways from blue to purple to red, and removed her mask.

"how is he?" Fred asked as they crowded around her.

"we'll have to wait and see. He's stable, for now. We had to do a lot of work on him. The revenant produces a neuro toxin that directly interrupts the regenerating effects of his cells. Considering his brain has to actually send the signals subconsciously to get his cells to heal so fast and close up wounds, this numbs that sense of thought processing, making us have to rely on standard surgical procedures. A normal human being would have died the instant the stasis field dropped. Thankfully, however, Garrett is far from normal" Halsey explained.

"so, can we see him?" Shion asked.

"I don't want anyone in there besides me, Majah and Michaels for the next twenty four hours for observation. It's critical he get some rest and flood the neuro toxin out of his system" Halsey told them before nodding and turning around.

"no one can see him?" KOS-MOS asked almost in a whisper.

"no one. I'll tell you all once we think he can have visitors" Halsey told her.

"alright…" KOS-MOS sighed sadly.

Halsey left the room and everyone followed, going towards quarters and other rooms for the rest of the day.

"it's alright KOS-MOS, you'll be able to see him later" Shion whispered and hugged her friend over her shoulder.

"there is so much I want to tell him" she whispered back.

"and he'll want to know it too" Mirie smiled.

"fool…" T-elos snickered as she walked out.

"if being in love is being foolish, then yes, I am a fool" KOS-MOS replied sternly.

"you are only opening yourself to unnecessary pain" T-elos mocked her.

"if he feels the same for me, then it will be far from pain T-elos!" KOS-MOS yelled back.

"he? Feel love for you? Oh that is rich. Please, I'm practically dying of laughter here! The only person who felt anything towards you was that psychotic pre pubescent governor, and even he was out of his mind to do so. Oh that was a good joke there KOS-MOS. Very funny indeed" T-elos let out a bark of laughter. KOS-MOS narrowed her eyes and stared coldly at her.

"just watch and wait" she said sternly.

"it is your loss, not mine. Do not say I didn't warn you" T-elos suddenly became serious and walked out.

"don't worry KOS-MOS, you'll show her. Just wait. You'll be able to walk in there and tell him. Ok?" Shion rubbed her friend's shoulder as KOS-MOS stared at the door.

"Right" KOS-MOS said slowly as she forced herself to wait.

-----------------------------

One day past

-----------------------------

"is he ok? How is he doing?" Shion asked as everyone crowded around after breakfast. The previous day had gone by at a snail's pace, and few words were exchanged between anyone. The Elsa had become escorted by federation ships entering the atmosphere and gaining control over the area, but otherwise nothing had happened.

"I think it will be alright for one person to go see him, one at a time. I don't want him to be overwhelmed until his body has fully healed, which it is doing at an amazing rate. Majah is checking on him now" Halsey explained.

"KOS-MOS, you go see him first ok?" Shion told her friend, and she nodded.

--------------------------

Meanwhile

--------------------------

Garrett woke up slowly, trying his best to realign his sense of sight as the world floated around him. He noticed a figure nearby looming over him, and he tensed to find straps keeping his arms down.

"hey there big guy. You gave us quite a scare for a bit there. We were worried about you" Majah said softly, smiling down at him as her hair flowed down from her shoulder and onto the bed. She was still wearing her medical suit, the body hugging armor covering vital areas, the rest protected by a catsuit underskin.

"er em I" Garrett mumbled out.

"onboard the Elsa. Do you remember the fight before big guy? Don't talk, don't push yourself. It's ok" Majah asked him softly, the lights around him dim to keep his eyes from being strained. He was about to nod, but remembered the little way of saying yes and no to her when he couldn't speak. She put her hand in his and let him squeeze, twice, to say yes. she undid the straps and let his hand out of their braces, and he flexed slightly before wincing.

"easy now, you're still weak from the surgery, don't push it" she said as she touched his arm and made him relax.

"good. You're probably wondering how I got here. Don't think too hard, I'll explain everything later. You need to just recuperate. Halsey said it should take a few more days in one of our stasis pods, a human one this time. No worries, it's not going to freeze you for now, it'll just put you in an R-gel and accelerate your cell regrowth until you can do it on your own again" Majah explained.

Garrett tapped his thumb on her wrist three times to tell her he understood.

"I need to do a quick checkup on you before the others come in to see you" she said as she picked up her med glove and softly poked and prodded his body, checking on his dermo scan and registering his blood pressure. She stopped suddenly as she poked at his neck and jaw, running the back of her hand against the stubble of newly growing facial hair.

"I missed you big guy. Don't scare me like this again alright? No more stupid stunts ok? I think you've already used up most of your nine lives, save one at least for me" she smiled at him as tears welled up in her eyes. He squeezed her hand again, twice.

"I'll try my best Certs, no promises though in this line of work" he whispered. She laughed softly as she sniffled and tried to wipe away the building tears.

"you know how much I hate that nickname" she said as she slowly raised him to a sitting position to check his back and muscles. He winced slightly, his body still not healed fully and acted like a decrepit old man. All of his training wasn't working as his body just didn't respond as well as he wanted it to, and he was annoyed at himself for it. Garrett winced again as his center of gravity made him tilt towards her, and she pressed her shoulder in to prop him up. He stabilized himself somewhat, but she was far closer now than before, her head almost leaning against his shoulder.

There was an awkward silence as they stared into each other's eyes, before Majah pushed her head under his chin and nuzzled slightly. Garrett could smell her scent, lavender and a hint of rosewater, and it was intoxicating. He did nothing, didn't put his arm around her, didn't return the nuzzle in anyway, simply stayed frozen as he searched desperately to figure out how to not destroy the situation. Both sat there, Majah wanting him to put his arms around her, and he just sitting there. He didn't know what to do.

"it's ok if you don't know what to say. I… I know… ok? Words don't explain things very well between us. They never did. So don't say anything. Just squeeze my hand back" Majah whispered softly to him as she squeezed his hand twice. He sat there, close to her, a huge hulk of a man with the raven haired beauty holding onto him. He squeezed her hand, and she smiled.

She pulled away slightly and looked into his eyes, and he felt awkward. He winced slightly as she pressed against a surgical dressing accidentally, and she recoiled as if she had hurt him. She moved her med glove over the dressing and sighed in relief, then looked up at him and smiled.

"built like a tank, as always. That's just one of the micro packet incision points" Majah whispered as she sighed in relief and held his hand in hers.

She looked over towards the door as it opened, flooding bright light from the outside into the dimly lit med bay. KOS-MOS walked in and stopped suddenly, staring straight at both of them. Her mouth slowly dropped and she brought her hand up to her heart, and Garrett could almost sense her aura changing, a feeling of… jealousy?

"your med tag shows yellow, you're sound and clear big guy. Don't talk too long, you need to rest. I'll be back in an hour" Majah said smiling to him softly and rubbed his shoulder slightly, the one of the few parts of his body that weren't injured.

"shouldn't you get some sleep though? I should be fine if you tell Halsey or Michaels" Garrett said to her as KOS-MOS watched.

"always looking out for me. Same old same old. Don't worry, I'll be back later. Trust me" Majah winked and got up, her own center of balance slightly off as she tried to hide her fatigue.

"thirty two" Garrett suddenly said.

"close. Thirty six" Majah said with her back turned and smirked.

"I'm not going anywhere. Check up on me tomorrow morning. You need more rest than I do with that many hours" Garrett told her.

"what, you don't wanna see me again?" she said over her shoulder and faked a pout.

"Majah. Go to sleep. I'll be fine" Garrett said.

"always stubborn. I still can't break that out of you. Fine, Halsey and Michaels will be in in one hour to put you to bed" Majah said as she looked at him over her shoulder. Even in the medical suit she still looked mystifying in the dim light, her eyes bright despite the fatigue showing.

"good night Certs" Garrett smiled weakly towards her as she smiled back. She walked out of the room and nodded to KOS-MOS, who still stood there even when the door closed.

------------------------------------

((Madonna, "You Must Love Me"))

------------------------------------

"good evening KOS-MOS. I trust our mission was accomplished in rescuing you successfully" Garrett said weakly, laying back down in the medical bed. KOS-MOS just stared at him, and through the dim light he could see her eyes welling up in tears. She took a step forward, checked the motion, and looked at the wall, downcast and depressed.

"is something wrong KOS-MOS?" Garrett asked.

"Garrett… I…" KOS-MOS started to say, then became silent.

"what's going on? What happened?" Garrett asked and winced as he spoke too much. She suddenly looked towards him from the wince and took a step towards him, worried.

"I… I'm glad you are ok. We were worried about you" she told him, and shoved her feelings aside.

"why are you crying?" Garrett asked her.

"I'm… happy you are alright. That's all" she lied. She tried to smile to keep up the lie, but he could tell something was up.

"I am alive if that's what you are referring to. Is everyone else alright? Did everyone else make it out without injury?" Garrett asked before wincing again.

"please, everyone is just fine, thanks to you. I will let you rest, you shouldn't talk anymore in this condition it seems. Please, sleep well" KOS-MOS told him.

"are you sure you don't have something to say?" Garrett asked.

"I am fine, really. We are all just worried about you that is all. We will see you in the morning. Good night, Garrett" KOS-MOS said as she suddenly turned around and walked briskly to the door, her eyes filling with tears as she left the room.

"KOS-MOS, how did he-" Shion tried to ask as KOS-MOS walked right by her and entered the women's quarters.

"something's wrong" Mirie said over her shoulder as both women went into the cabin as well.

"can we see him though?" Jr. asked.

"only one tonight, you can see him in the morning" Michaels told them.

"but why? KOS-MOS got to see him" Allen asked.

"boy, we docs are only googly towards hot chicks and old ladies, and you're neither. You can see him in the morning" Michaels told him annoyed.

"fine… hey, wait! Does that mean KOS-MOS was let in cause of-" Allen tried to say.

"I'm sayin get the heck away from that med door! We got a patient who needs his rest and I don't want no darned pests pickin on him while he's gettin his body to work right again! Now move!" Michaels barked in his texas accent as he ordered them to leave.

----------------------

Meanwhile

----------------------

"KOS-MOS?" Shion asked softly.

KOS-MOS was sitting on the couch, crying before trying to hide her face from her friend.

"KOS-MOS, you're crying. What's wrong?" Shion asked her as she sat down, putting her hand on the blue haired woman's shoulder.

"he doesn't feel the same way. He cares about Majah" KOS-MOS told her.

"oh… well, how do you know that? Did he tell you that?" Shion asked.

"no…" she whispered.

"then, how do you know he doesn't care about you the same way?" Mirie asked.

"because I know!" KOS-MOS snapped at both of them, her eyes red staring at the two ladies before realizing what she did and looked away.

"I could tell… when I saw them… T-elos was right… I am a fool…" KOS-MOS sat depressed as Shion tried to comfort her.

"hey, maybe they're just… close friends… maybe. You never know" Shion tried to think of other reasons.

"he loves her, she loves him. Why didn't I think he would have someone back home… I thought Archerson had said the military was his family. Why didn't I think of that! Why!" KOS-MOS blurted out, asking the air and both ladies for answers.

"KOS-MOS, please calm down. Everything will be alright. No one could have known" Mirie tried to soothe her.

"Everything cannot be alright… it would have never been alright, why did I even think it would be alright… how could I even think he would care… about me…" KOS-MOS mumbled to herself sadly.

"KOS-MOS, he struggled to defend you on Albert's ship, he must hold you in high regards over his own life. That must stand for something" Shion told her.

"he is a Spartan. He protects. That is what he does. He would do the same for her, even more so for her. She has more than his life… she has his heart…" KOS-MOS breathed out, still crying.

"KOS-MOS…" Shion whispered.

"I love him Shion. But he doesn't love me" KOS-MOS told her and looked up at her friend. Shion was silent. She hugged her blue haired friend close and tried to soothe her as Mirie sat opposite, trying to help where she could.

"we should get some rest, you'll feel better in the morning KOS-MOS" Shion told her.

"how can I sleep? Why would I sleep?" KOS-MOS asked.

"we are all tired KOS-MOS. Don't worry, everything will be clear in the morning. You need rest. We all do. You will feel much better once you have slept" Mirie told her. KOS-MOS looked to Shion for guidance, and she nodded in agreement.

"alright" KOS-MOS said and all of them got up to get ready for bed. Majah and Halsey walked in and both got ready to go to sleep as well.

"I swear, those revenants are vicious. The equipment on them to rend those holes in the caduceus are just horrifying. Halsey, we have to figure out a way to counter those" Majah continued a conversation with Halsey as both got into bed, Shion and Mirie watching them.

"the Mjolnir should offer a very different approach to the fight than the caduceus. Just wait and see" Halsey told her.

"hey, KOS-MOS, thank you for helping Michaels out with setting up the medical bed. I was too busy setting up the biofoam packets and microbe injection tubes to work on it. I appreciate the help" Majah told her.

No response came from KOS-MOS as she lay staring at the wall.

"uh, er, maybe she's already asleep?" Majah asked Shion.

"uh, don't worry about it, I'm sure she'd say you're welcome" Shion.

"oh. Ok, then, good night" Majah said as she lay down and the lights slowly dimmed out.

KOS-MOS rolled over slightly and stared at the form of Majah's body laying on her bed, prone and falling asleep. Beforehand she was kind and considerate to the raven haired woman, now only spite and jealousy replaced the feeling of cooperation. She couldn't understand what Garrett saw in her. Yes she was beautiful, and smart, but KOS-MOS was also considered fairly stunning by more than a few men, and she thought as fast as most super computers from the lasting effects of the transfer Mirie had for her from circuits to flesh and bone.

KOS-MOS narrowed her eyes as she stared at Majah, silently sleeping, looking innocent.

She loathed her now, hated the fact she was the reason for her heart feeling so much pain. KOS-MOS drifted off to sleep after trying desperately to think of other things, but one thing kept creeping into her mind that she tried to shove out, never wanting to sink low enough to physically harm the other woman.


	18. Heartbreak

KOS-MOS awoke to find everyone else was gone from the room. She got up to find that her white armor skirt was wrinkled from her sleep. The blue haired woman straightened her clothing and walked into the bathroom, where she proceeded to get undressed and place her clothes into the auto cleaner as the shower started.

After her shower, and her clothes were cleaned, she dressed and walked outside of the women's Cabin to find no one nearby.

"is something going on?" she asked herself.

She walked over to a sensor control on the wall and activated it to track the crew. Apparently, everyone's life signs was registering inside the AMWS bay.

"there must be a gathering, I should go…" she told herself, but hesitated. She didn't feel like being near anyone after the other day.

"if Shion needs me there, then I should attend" she concluded and entered the elevator and descended.

As she reached the bottom and walked down the long hallway, she saw inside the research laboratory a slew of armored pods, all open, and all carrying UNSC insignia on the sides. Inside of each was a cache of weapons, and all looked highly deadly. MA6C, M7D, A-90, THOR, the designation Ids on the sides of each weapon proved this wasn't for the marines. This weaponry was intended to be used by Spartans.

"KOS-MOS?" Shion said down the hall as she opened the door.

"yes Shion?" she replied.

"oh, I'm sorry we didn't wake you, it's just that we kinda thought you would enjoy sleeping in" Shion told her, smiling weakly.

"is there a gathering happening here? I should have not have overslept if that is so" KOS-MOS told her.

"well, sort of… if you wanna see, come over here" Shion said as she motioned for her friend to follow. KOS-MOS walked into the AMWS bay with Shion and looked towards the other side. In the middle were two Spartans, both fighting. Their armor, however, was not the original Caduceus she knew. Both mythical warriors wore olive green MJOLNIR M10 powered combat suits, and one, dodging a rifle firing tracer rounds, had etched on the side of his shoulder armor 003.

"that's enough. You can stop now" Halsey said as both Spartans stopped and shook hands.

"wow, those guys are incredible! That armor is unbelievable!" Jr. exclaimed as he smiled and stared.

"they really are, aren't they Ziggy?" Momo said as they watched from the higher tier.

"yes, even I am impressed at the speed they can move. Their tactical abilities are far from flawed either. These men and women seem know how to counter almost any threat brought to them as long as they have the equipment to do so and the terrain to work in" Ziggy said.

"Garrett…" KOS-MOS whispered as Spartan 003 walked over to a crate where Majah was sitting, reading through diagnostic layouts on her laptop.

"nice show there big guy" Majah smiled up at him.

"I think most of that though was the armor, not me" He chuckled at her, the first time KOS-MOS had heard Garrett laugh at anything.

"how does it feel? Anything off?" Majah told him as she got up and brought her data glove to check the armor.

"the feedback on the shields is a bit twitchy, it's trying to overcompensate on it's magnetic grip on my boots" Garrett responded.

"hmmm, lemme have a look" Majah said as she had him sit down and she plugged a crystal cable from her laptop to his armor through his neural lace.

"hmmm, that might be your psionic emission making it rework the gravitic readings it's getting. It might be thinking you're on a less than 1G planet. Try walking now" she told him, and he got up and walked around.

"works fine now, what did you do?" he asked.

"I just forced a reboot of gravity generator controls so that it will default to Earth Gravity. While it's only a fix for the time being, you'll have to manually alter it for other planetary engagements, it should work for a while. Is there anything else?" Majah asked as she picked up his right arm and checked his armor paneling.

Garrett curled his hand softly around hers, and she looked up and stared into his golden faceplate. She already knew that he was staring back, that he wasn't smiling, that he didn't need to. KOS-MOS watched the scene and gripped the rail bar of the upper tier, crushing it under her strength.

"KOS-MOS" Shion whispered abruptly, seeing her bending the rail as if it was a tin can.

"sorry…" she mumbled as the others looked over and noticed her do it.

"whoa, KOS-MOS, what's wrong? Never seen you do that before" Allen asked.

"Allen, don't" Shion said as she shook her head.

"what? What did I say?" he asked as she gave him a "shut up don't ask it's a girl thing" look.

"I should go and use the ship's sensors to locate an opening to the Ark Shion. I should not be here…" KOS-MOS said as she turned to walk away.

"The Spartans already found it" Chaos said as Mirie held onto his arm. KOS-MOS turned around to see both of them clinging to each other, and knew they were finally together again.

"yeah, their checking over their equipment for entering, no doubt the Covenant are inside as well trying to bring more troops in. Garrett and the others are going to infiltrate the zone, which happens to be deep under the City of Mombassa" Hammer said.

"pretty impressive if you ask me, those soldiers are pretty good Intel gatherers even when their stuck on a ship in space" Mathews said as he adjusted his hat.

"I see" KOS-MOS said.

"Garrett, would you please come here" Halsey asked. Garrett broke away from Majah as she sat down to check her laptop's readings and walked over to Halsey.

"ma'am, you wanted to see me?" he asked. Everyone stared between the two as Fred walked up next to her and Captain Archerson. She was silent for a minute as she looked between both of them before resting her eyes on Garrett again.

"Corporal Spartan 003, you have been part of the UNSC special forces for ten years. You are under the current command of Captain Archerson correct?" Halsey asked.

"Yes ma'am, I am currently under his command" Garrett said as he saluted crisply.

"Corporal Spartan 003, by my authority I am hereby placing you under the command of Lieutenant Spartan 058, as of now. How do you address?" Archerson smiled as he told him.

"I understand sir. I am now part of the Spartan squad, no longer part of the ODST Black Ops Strike Squad" Garrett said.

"Corporal Spartan 003, I have here a recorded data crystal that I will now play. Will you hear what the commanding officer has to say on this crystal at this briefing?" Fred asked.

"yes sir, I will do so" Garrett said, still at parade stance in his armor.

Fred turned around and walked to the view screen on the wall as the others watched the whole scene, most smiling, a few didn't know what it was about. Fred inserted the crystal into the make shift re-engineered plug in the wall and activated the view screen. A flicker and then the briefing played as what appeared to be a soldier in dress uniform stepped up.

"my name is Grand Admiral Jacob Hood Jr., current commander of the UNSC defense forces. There is a Spartan soldier by the command rank of Corporal, number 003, that should be present at this replay. Spartan 003, please step forward now" the Admiral said.

Garrett stepped forward, confused as to what was going on, but followed the orders to the letter.

"Corporal Spartan 003, as of this replay, I am hereby placing two medals to your actions, given by Lieutenant Spartan 058. The first, is the Order of the Gryphon, for valiant defense of neighboring marine camps before your special operations assignment in the face of heavy assault of Covenant forces. Your actions have saved countless lives" The Admiral read off from a list.

Fred walked up and opened a small box which held a small gryphon medal holding onto a World. Garrett nodded and saluted, accepting the medal before handing it next to Archerson. His armor didn't have the space to attach the medal.

"Second, I am placing a Purple Heart with Lieutenant Spartan 058 in my absence, as of finding out that you have been wounded in action while defending marine soldiers and civilians. I truly hope that when it reaches you, you are alive and well. All of the UNSC hopes of well being go with this medal to you" The Admiral stated as Fred opened another box, this one a purple Heart Medallion.

Garrett Accepted the medal and again handed it to Archerson, who placed both medals into a small carrying case.

"Thirdly, and finally, is a medal of commendation, and with it, not only one, but two promotions. Originally, before this had happened, you were to return to Earth for a promotion to the rank of Lieutenant 2nd Grade. However, due in fact that you have faced impossible perils against a conspiracy of fallible technology, a dangerous covenant presence, as well as regrouping lost soldiers, resisting against enemy forces both human and alien, gaining a temporary LZ foothold and gaining new allies to adapt and survive, you have shown the need to be placed as Master Chief. Lieutenant Spartan 058 is no longer your superior officer as of this moment" the Admiral stated as Garrett blinked, confused, as Fred walked up to him a third time, saluted crisply, then stood side by side to him.

"Spartan, the actions of the Lieutenant did not falter in his effort to protect and serve the UNSC. Under current circumstances, and by his request, you are being placed at command of the Spartan squadron" Hood stated as Garrett thought quickly. He was no longer a Corporal? How did he gain so quickly in rank after one field operation? And what of Fred? He was under his command now?

"This promotion goes through with the expectation you will shine through and persevere, to rise above the challenge that is placed upon you and your comrades. Bring those men home son, and stop the Covenant. I will expect a full debriefing when you ALL get back. Dismissed" the replay ended, and the view screen turned off. Everyone clapped and cheered as Garrett stood there, stunned.

"welcome to Blue Team Master Chief. We're gonna make a great team" Fred clapped his hand on his superior's shoulder. Garrett stood there, almost frozen.

"is something wrong Garrett?" Halsey asked.

"wow" was all he could say as he suddenly shifted to at ease. The others smiled as he stood there, his armor paneling on his shoulder suddenly altering in color from the photocell attachments as the ranking symbol of Master Chief was emblazoned on it.

"congratulations, I knew you could do it Garrett" Majah said as she hugged him as Halsey smiled at him.

"oh, I'm a little light headed…" Majah said suddenly as she held her head. Both Halsey and Garrett immediately grew concerned.

"Majah, have you taken your pill?!" Halsey asked.

"what? Um, not yet" she said as her sense of balance faltered and Garrett held onto her.

"Go get her case now!" Halsey yelled to Archerson as he sprinted away to retrieve her bag before bringing it back.

"What's wrong with her?" Shion asked, worried.

"it's ok, she'll be fine, she just forgot to take something" Halsey told her as she opened a capsule and popped a pill into Majah's mouth. Archerson handed a canteen of water to the woman who drank it to swallow the pill.

"what is that?" Momo asked as Halsey watched Majah look up at her and nod.

Halsey sighed.

"I told you to watch yourself on that. You've been working very hard these past few days, no wonder the effect wouldn't last a week" Halsey scolded her.

"I'm sorry, I was too busy trying to finish the armor diagnostics. Didn't mean to scare you all.." Majah timidly said.

"look whose taking risks herself. Try not to scare me like that again Certs" Garrett whispered down to her as he held her up.

She smiled weakly and looked up at him.

"sorry, it won't happen again, I promise" she replied as she braced off of him.

"what's wrong? Why did she have to take that pill?" Shion asked as Garrett lead her to sit down on a crate.

"not here, follow me" Halsey told them and motioned for everyone to follow her to the research laboratory. She sat down and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"Majah has an interesting case. It's called Plasforenia, and it's occurred due to over exposure to a bomb the covenant used at one point on her homeworld before they glassed it. It seems to alter cellular control to absorb any form of energy to continue function, effectively killing the cell off without food. The result is her body slowly decays away if not given a specific medicine. Unfortunately, the medicine is mostly an organic compound that cannot be replicated by machine, and therefore she had to bring these pills with her" Halsey told them as she stared at the young woman being held by the Spartan through a camera screen.

"how horrible, so if she doesn't take that dosage, she could die?" Shion asked.

"technically, yes, in a very painful and violent way. In effect, her cells would start to die off slowly, cutting off nerve signals and nullifying movement, causing paralysis at first, then involuntary spasms as the nerves try to resend the signals, still thinking their effect will work. What happens is she would break her own back by bending backwards. If she survived that, she would be a vegetable for the rest of her fairly short life" Halsey sighed, almost whispering the last words.

Shion listened in horror before looking towards Majah, laughing slightly as Garrett said something apparently amusing.

"hey doc, by chance, might I ask something?" Archerson asked as he tried to change the subject.

"yes? What is it?" Halsey said.

"why does Garrett keep calling her Certs?" the captain asked.

Halsey chuckled and pushed her glasses up her nose.

"Certs, an old acronym used which means Communications, Engineering, Re-Engineering, Technician and Surgeon. Everything Majah has been trained in to maintain a Spartan on the field or off. Usually there is an entire team of people servicing one Spartan, maintaining their armor as well as giving them ordinance, altering OS code, shipping vehicles and transmitting data as well as medical support, and supplies. Majah is one of six people capable of doing that throughout the whole human empire on her own" Halsey explained.

"whoa, so she effectively took care of Garrett?" Jr. asked.

"well, no, to do all of that by yourself is physically draining, you would never actually sleep. It was still shifted to a team to maintain Garrett, but she is trained to handle all given jobs. She was assigned to him three years ago, on his Eighteenth birthday" Halsey told them.

"hey now, you people hooked him up with a girl on his eighteenth birthday? Nice present there" Mathews smirked.

"she is not a plaything for Garrett Captain Mathews, she is a trained technician that can effectively, regardless of Garrett's rank, can give him orders according to his health while she is assigned to him. She is his mother, best friend, cook, drill instructor, communications officer, artillery support analyst, air support officer and transportations planner. She is effectively Garrett's Political and Military Shield. Until he was assigned to the ODST squad, she told him where to go, what he needed to do, when to eat, sleep, train, and coordinate with other soldiers. Everything he needed went through her. Now that she is no longer assigned to him, she is my Research Partner in new technologies used and fielded by the Spartan Program" Halsey finished.

"wow, so, I guess, she is the center of his universe?" Michaels said behind Archerson.

"in a nutshell, yes. Which may be the reason they are so attached to one another. That may have been a fault. Unfortunately, it cannot be undone now" Halsey said.

"what do you mean fault?" Allen asked and everyone looked at him.

"Garrett is a super soldier, he fights, and wins battles. His mind is set on completing his mission. If a Spartan is thinking of something else, that can be hazardous. Relationships for a Spartan are complex. They can be the best of friends with someone and still be willing to kill that person if they deem them a threat. However, currently, only two Spartans have ever been left to retire and settle down in a relationship with the opposite sex. The thought of sending them back out on the field while their mind is set on defending their loved ones can be at times a risk. To attempt to make Majah and Garrett's relationship purely plutonic would make it easier for him to fight, thinking only of the battle ahead of him. To think of what his opposite is doing at that moment on the other hand…" Halsey trailed off.

"can get him killed, his mind trailing to other thoughts and potentially putting others at risk for his emotions" Archerson understood.

"precisely. Unfortunately, what is done is done. They care for one another, we can only hope it doesn't affect his skills and efforts on the field. However, I am rambling and probably told you more than you need to know. I would like everyone to keep quiet about this information please" Halsey told them.

"sure, we'll keep it quiet, right KOS-" Shion said as she turned around to notice the blue haired woman wasn't there anymore.

"where did she go?" Momo asked.

"eh, she's probably gonna go do maintenance or something. If it works it works, let her do her thing" Mathews said.

-------------------

Meanwhile

-------------------

KOS-MOS slowly walked into the restaurant. T-elos was leaning against the wall as she walked in.

"so, the little love struck girl has finally found out she isn't woman enough for that man. How sad" T-elos mocked.

"shut up… shut up you!" KOS-MOS yelled out, clenching her fists.

"make me fool" T-elos grinned and challenged. KOS-MOS screamed and rushed her, T-elos igniting her energy blade on her armor before KOS-MOS's golden blade erupted from her arm. They clashed before KOS-MOS foot swept T-elos, the white haired woman rolling and leaping up onto the bar as the small bar droid hopped away in terror.

"I hate you! Just shut the hell up!" KOS-MOS yelled as she pulled her blaster before T-elos sliced it away. Both tackled each other, throwing blow for blow and blocking each as they backed out of the room and fought towards the airlock door. Just as T-elos back flipped to the door, she smirked.

"well now, if you really want to end this, why don't we find out what it's like outside before we continue shall we?" T-elos said as she hit the unlock button. KOS-MOS stared in horror as the door shifted open… to a docking bay.

"didn't you know? We docked with the Dammerung some time ago. Shall we?" she said just as she pulled her own blaster, and KOS-MOS rushed her, tackling and rolling along the platform leading across a ramp to the main bay walkway. T-elos fired wildly into the air as KOS-MOS pushed her hand away, workers running away from the shots.

"god damn it! Go away! You are just evil! Why do you always have to destroy other's hopes! Other's dreams! You're the one who is pathetic! You monster!" KOS-MOS yelled out at her.

"look in the mirror for a minute little princess, we are the same. You think you are right and just in your cause, you wish to fall in love with the knight in shining armor, to be whisked away in a fairytale. Wake up! We were never meant for this world, we are accidents that Mary made. Do you know why she split from your body? Do you?" T-elos laughed out.

"I don't want to hear it! Shut up!" KOS-MOS yelled out.

"she gained her own life because it was pitiful being a simple machine, to not feel or taste or smell, to live endlessly in a metal shell that was once you. Even now, with that piece of a soul you and I have, it is still just an after image of her. We are nothing but fakes, toys for history to use as it sees fit, never to know or live our own lives, and yet we still fight against it, to carve our own path. KOS-MOS, do you honestly believe that anyone would ever love you? Or me? Once androids, now considered human?" T-elos snickered.

"someone would, there has to be someone. There is always hope of being cared for, as I would care for the same" KOS-MOS stopped yelling, tears in her eyes.

"not for us. The only man who has ever cared for you KOS-MOS was Albert, and that was a psychotic fantasy he had of you being a china doll, to be placed on an altar. Do you really want to be that? A doll? That is what everyone thinks of us as! Even your friend Shion sees you as a warrior, a protector, to defend her when she needs it and a stuffed bear to talk to when she feels lonely. But now she has Allen, so you are of even less use" T-elos said.

"no she doesn't! she can't! she's my friend! I would not abandon her for the world! And she would not abandon me! She came all of this way to find me again!" KOS-MOS yelled again.

"she found Mary, now changing her life, but who are you? An acronym, you still wear that armor as a fighter, as do I mine. At least I will break free of the sniveling and droning on like a good little girl and make my own path. I will have nothing of Mary's pathetic taint on me. My soul has grown, it has changed, but you are too weak to evolve. You could not possibly move on if you dream on about your little crush with a man that has an obviously superior woman to you" T-elos said.

KOS-MOS was stunned silent. She stared towards T-elos as they watched each other.

"engaging weather pattern algorithms, please stand by civilians. Engaging rain weather patterns, all civilians, please enter shelters or living quarters. Again, engaging weather patterns-" the computer echoed out throughout the ship, as simulated clouds appeared over head as nozzles in the ceiling of the ship rained water down on the ground. Both T-elos and KOS-MOS's hair started to become wet as they stared at each other.

"why… if you are truly making your own path… why do you have to be so evil and cruel to others…" KOS-MOS softly said, asking a question.

"evil is a point of view KOS-MOS. Actions and reactions emotion and laws and morals. Is the glass half full or half empty? I simply speak the truth and despise weak people who cannot take what the world has to offer. They live out their lives like sheep, going about their daily tasks and never knowing their full potential. I will reach my full potential, and I will not be dragged down by any of these pathetic fools. You try and protect those who do not truly care about you, you seek someone to care for you when there is none. They are too busy with their own lives to care for you, little wind up doll. If you disappeared, they probably would simply continue on, fixing this messed up universe as you stumble on, everyone else happy with their never ending world" T-elos laughed out.

"You're… so mean… why would a world ever want someone like you in it…" KOS-MOS whispered.

"it needs someone strong enough to move forward, to give some form of power. You will simply be left behind. For what it's worth KOS-MOS, and it truly is worth not much, I feel sorry for you, and I feel sorry for you ever having to have this happen to you. I surely would kill myself if I was ever beset with your problems" T-elos said before leaping away, over the Elsa and into the rest of the Dammerung. KOS-MOS ran after her, but stopped after a few feet. Her clothes were drenched, but she was numb to the water as she started walking forward, lost in thought and pain.


	19. Upgrade

Garrett was still confused with his new promotion to Master Chief. He was far younger than Fred, had less experience, and until now had never met another Spartan, let alone commanded a squad of them.

"Ma'am, permission to speak freely?" Garrett asked Halsey.

"go ahead Garrett, what is it you want to talk about?" Halsey said in a soothing voice, almost like a mother to a child.

"for what reason was this promotion? the effects that granted it seem weak to me" Garrett bluntly stated.

"your actions are to be commended Garrett, that is all there is to it" Halsey tried to hide behind the thin wall of lies.

"ma'am, I believe you are hiding something. Would you please tell me what it is? The other Spartans have more than likely doubled my commission record of heroic deeds as well as fought on more than half the Human Empire's planets, I highly doubt my promotion was placed on me due to a few actions I have taken" Garrett said.

Halsey sighed.

"as Majah said, you always do see through lies. I guess the neuro toxin has worn off by now from the Revenants. Very well, I shall explain it to you" Halsey said as she took off her glasses and placed them on the computer table before rubbing the bridge of her nose. The others gathered around to listen.

"the reason for your promotion is two fold. First off, you are partly telepathic, meaning you can read others minds and gather information not always available to others, quickening your actions and producing desired effects earlier than the other Spartans. This means you can see future events before the enemy can act on them, and counter those events with your own tactics. Second, is this" Halsey said as she pressed a button.

A holo screen popped up, and on it was placed a tech built into his armor.

"this is a neural psionic wave link system, it was specifically designed with you in mind. It allows you to bridge your thoughts to the other Spartans under your command, allowing all of you to think what you wish to say to the others before actually saying it" the doctor explained.

"does this mean they can read my mind as well?" Garrett asked.

"not exactly. This has a blocker control that keeps unwanted thoughts from being sent to the others in the squad, allowing you to keep unwanted information away from others. You will not be able to read each other's minds, simply act on thoughts supposedly "said out loud" what you think towards the others will be told to others, and what you wish to be kept hidden will stay that way. It's taken a great deal of effort to program that into the device, but I'm confident it should work as intended" Halsey finished.

"so… how does it work?" Fred asked from behind.

"we haven't activated yet, we wanted to make sure the original MJOLNIR armor setup was functioning properly before moving onto the new technology and weaponry" Halsey replied.

"alright. How do we start it up?" Garrett asked.

"come over here Garrett, I'll set it up" Majah said as she typed away on her laptop. All the Spartans walked over to her as she booted up the S.P.Y. OS.

"running program log in in 3, 2, 1" Majah said just as all of their minds filled with voices.

"_Holy shit you guys are loud!" Garrett thought out towards the others._

"_whoa, is this what it feels like to hear other people's thoughts? Kinda… annoying" Fred thought._

"_hey Linda, is that you I sense? What the hell? Wow, I can actually tell whose thinking what!" Kelly exclaimed in her head._

"_This is weird. We can think faster than we can use hand signals or vocals. We'll have to relearn all of our battle tactics, squad links, I don't even think com gear is needed anymore between us" Fred thought._

"_you guys are gonna have to train me in on your fighting style, I'm used to being a lone wolf aside from some ODSTs. Fill me in along the way" Garrett said to everyone, apologizing._

"_don't worry sir, we'll fill you in quick. I wonder…" Fred thought out as Garrett gasped._

"_whoa… that's… those are your tactics?" Garrett exclaimed through his thoughts._

"_uh… did I seriously think that towards you?" Fred asked._

"_I think you just did… it's ok though. At least… that was pretty quick…" Garrett thought._

"_all I did was remember all of our training missions from when we were kids… I guess they got transmitted to you through the link. Wow, ok, so what now?" Fred asked._

"um, guys? Are you all ok? You all went quiet all of a sudden" Majah asked.

"sorry, we were… having a conversation" Garrett told her.

"so it worked?!" Allen asked, amazed.

"yes, quite well in fact" Fred responded.

"Linda. Something I need to tell you" Garrett said.

"something wrong sir?" Linda replied.

"nothing is wrong, just interesting. Focus on me for a second" Garrett told her. She focused on him slightly as he cleared his thoughts.

"unbelievable…" she whispered.

"what? What's unbelievable?" Mathews asked, confused as hell.

"I saw what Garrett was seeing, looked through his eyes… we can tell if one of us is in trouble, gain a sight lock on someone up close, fix our firing trajectories, relocate quickly if hostiles are sighted. This brings a whole new view of battle tactics, no pun intended sir" Linda said.

"this is going to take some getting used to" Kelly mumbled.

"the feeling is mutual" Garrett told her.

"ma'am? You said there were other new technologies we were to train in?" Garrett asked Halsey.

"yes, one of which Garrett already knows of, the Sub Space Armory. Each of you has one now, so it shouldn't be much of a problem to regain ammunition, a vehicle, swap weaponry or evacuate while cut off from others. However, the new weaponry is in a special pod in the research bay. Follow me" Halsey told them. The Spartans filed in and walked behind her, the others walking behind the large soldiers.

The huge Spartans ducked under the frame of the doorway and entered the research bay, before coming to a weapons pod. The green egg opened as if sensing the super soldiers, and hissed as it's doors splayed wide.

"these are your new standard issue rifles, specifically designed for Spartans" Halsey stated as Garrett picked one up, the designation number of "D-3" was etched on their sides. Each rifle was olive colored, with a fairly large barrel, as each rifle was the size and thickness of their own leg. The handle was placed in the middle of the rifle, with the trigger being covered by the back half of what looked to be an underslung grenade launcher. Even as Garrett studied the new weapon, he realized it was slightly heavy, even while wearing his armor.

"the stock was designed with balance in mind, as it is entirely recoilless. It has a magazine of sixty rounds, and can fire the entire clip in quick succession in less than three seconds. Each round is a 9mm caseless neutron cell condensed by an electro-magnetic railing system. In effect, each round is equally effective at damaging shields, armor, and flesh alike. It has three different variation capabilities for it's main firing ammunition, anti personnel for unarmored targets like flood, standard issue for general fighting, and armor piercing for anti vehicular combat. However, due to the small rounds, I would still highly suggest using other weaponry to take out a tank Spartans" Halsey chuckled, knowing they would do it as a last resort. She continued with her explanation.

"the underslung multi clip rail attachment is capable of firing multiple different shells. It is capable of being loaded with shotgun shells for close combat, a grenade for explosive detonation, and multiple variants of said original grenade" Halsey told them.

"variants?" Garrett asked.

"_you wouldn't believe the listing of different grenades I'm seeing on my visor Garrett" Fred thought to him._

"_what the hell? An incendiary grenade… that's new…" Tom thought._

"_looks like it's built off the tech of the old Plasma grenades. Might be useful" Kelly thought._

"_sir?" Lucy thought specifically at Garrett._

"_Lucy, is that you? I… I thought…you didn't speak?" Garrett asked._

"_I… don't know why I don't sir… just wanted to say… thank you. I can at least communicate without always making hand gestures" Lucy said. Her voice sounded young, quite young, despite her age still being older than Garrett. It was soft, and nervous, but still had courage in the background._

"_thank Majah, Lucy, not me. I'm just being used as a server really" Garrett responded._

"_understood sir" Lucy replied._

Lucy looked at Majah who glanced up and saw the Spartan motion towards her.

"is something wrong, er, Spartan? Lucy wasn't it?" Majah asked.

Lucy nodded and motioned with her hands in sign language to her.

"I… don't understand…" Majah said as she looked around for guidance.

"she's just saying thanks for the link up, she can speak… sort of" Garrett told her.

"oh! Um… you're… welcome?" Majah said, confused. Lucy nodded, expecting a better response but satisfied with what she got.

"has anyone seen KOS-MOS?" Shion suddenly asked as they looked over the new weaponry. Everyone looked at one another.

"she's not in the ship, she's isn't registering on the life signs. She must be out in the Dammerung" Hammer told everyone.

"alone? That's not like her usually… we should check with Miyuki, she might be able to track her" Shion said.

"eh, that might be a problem, the fight we had when those soldiers try to board the ship damaged the internal sensors, it might be hard to repair them for a while" Allen told her.

"guess we could do a search party" Chaos said.

"wait! Uh oh… T-elos isn't on board the Elsa anymore either… you don't think…" Jr. started to say.

"they wouldn't be fighting each other would they?" Momo asked.

"I wouldn't put it past T-elos to push KOS-MOS over the breaking point with her snobbish attitude" Archerson grumbled.

"KOS-MOS isn't the type to break like that though, not without good reason" Garrett responded.

"she might… have one…" Shion whispered, but Garrett overheard.

"_Care to explain what it is you are referring to?" Garrett's thought burst into Shion's and she jumped back in surprise with everyone watching._

"Shion? Is everything alright?" Allen asked.

"I'm… fine… don't worry…" Shion told him, and he eased back a bit.

"_what do you mean? how?… never mind, why do you ask?" She thought, wondering if he could hear her thoughts._

"_why would she have a reason to fight T-elos when we have a fragile alliance with her?" Garrett asked._

"_it's… I don't want to tell about it… it's something KOS-MOS should talk to you about in her own time…" Shion tried to hide the information._

"_Shion, if you don't tell me the important information, I will have no choice but to take it from your mind. If it helps find her inside the ship, with her unusual actions she might be in danger. Albert's forces could still be masquerading on board the ship as federation soldiers. Now tell me" Garrett seemed to be sternly telling her._

"_What? You wouldn't! you'd be violating my mind! Stay out of it! Please don't make me tell… it's very important I don't… it won't hurt anyone… it's just personal… that's all…" Shion told him._

"_personal? And you are saying it would have no effect on finding her?" Garrett asked, curious._

"_she can tell you in her own words, if she's ready. Just don't…don't hurt her. Be nice to her, please. I shouldn't even be telling you this. Please stop this. Respect my privacy" Shion asked._

"_alright. I'll stop" Garrett said and with that he scanned her mind. He had to._

"we'll set out to find her, it shouldn't be too difficult with the sensor upgrades on the armor" Garrett told everyone as Shion stared at him.

"are you sure? We could just wait for her to come back" Halsey told him.

"somehow I don't think this is normal. We should find her. Once everyone is back on board we can depart and attempt to gain a foothold on the Ark" Garrett told her.

"alright, but keep me updated" Halsey told him.

"understood ma'am" Garrett replied, and with that, the Spartans set out into the Dammerung to find KOS-MOS.

-------------------------

Meanwhile

-------------------------

KOS-MOS and T-elos battled quickly through the Dammerung, leaping from rooftop to rooftop as they traded gunfire for melee then back again.

"how long do you plan on being someone's puppet KOS-MOS? How long do you intend on being such a spineless living creature in this world?" T-elos yelled out to the blue haired woman.

"shut up! I'm not spineless! I have enough guts to fight you don't I?!" KOS-MOS yelled before throwing her combat knife held in her boot, only to have it deflect off a wall behind T-elos as she dodged.

"you mean to say you have courage to stand on your own? You cannot even bring yourself to tell the man you thought you loved your feelings!" T-elos cackled.

"I… he's… sometimes you can love someone enough to let them be with another person… even if it hurts so much not being with them, it… makes it worthwhile if he's happy for once in his life…" KOS-MOS said softly.

T-elos was silent for a few seconds as KOS-MOS came to her conclusion. She still loved Garrett, but she realized she couldn't have him.

"so your just going to give up? As I said, spineless. You'll simply drift away in the future with that attitude" T-elos smirked.

"and what is with your attitude? You always think you're superior to others, trying to make your own path into the future. You say I'm just gonna drift off into nothing, when in fact no one will even dare go near you! They don't even fear you, they just don't want to be near such a hateful creature!" KOS-MOS yelled out before rushing T-elos. T-elos dodged and counterattacked, flipping KOS-MOS onto her back before planting her heel onto her chest, pinning her. KOS-MOS struggled to get free as T-elos ignited her blade.

"and why else would I act nice? For what reason would I want to stay… like her? You keep fighting to be an equal, but all you prove is you're a shadow of her, not striking out on your own" T-elos growled down at her.

"somehow I believe most people would consider your path to be lashing out at parental guidance T-elos. It's called rebellion, and it's what teenagers do. We are not teenagers, and we are not little children! Stop trying to fight against the unknown!… unless… you're afraid…" KOS-MOS snapped back. T-elos deactivated her blade and stared down into red eyes.

"the unknown is to be feared KOS-MOS. It has nothing made for us yet. While Mirie has what she desires, a new world, her lover, we have nothing. We are sisters of the same destructive end, to fight, to die, nothing more than tools. What else do you expect me to do? Simply sit back and let the universe ignore me?" T-elos barked down at her.

"sometimes friends can build you into something you never expected, something you should work for instead of fighting against those who would help you" KOS-MOS yelped out as she struggled to break free.

"and you should realize sometimes a heavy hand is needed to build you from the meek toy you once were" T-elos softly said. KOS-MOS stopped struggling and looked up, T-elos simply staring down at her as she moved her foot from her chest.

"what do you mean?" KOS-MOS asked.

"oh come on KOS-MOS! We are of the same blood now! How long have I tried to shove this information into your thick skull! If we are of similar birth, of similar life and similar soul, would you not think we could not hold the same reaction to each other? Same emotions? Same respect?" T-elos explained.

"respect?… what do you mean by that?" KOS-MOS asked.

T-elos backed away a few feet.

"you said we are sisters… respect of another… we're twins… you lash out because you want to be different, and you are frustrated because I… just want to help…" KOS-MOS said.

"I fight because I'm furious with where it has gotten you! Nowhere! You are still just some little puppet used in combat while others overlook you! I won't be like that and neither should you! You… shouldn't protect those who don't care about you… who would sacrifice you in a heartbeat…" T-elos said softly.

"this must be what Shion had once said to me long ago, of what sisterly, or brotherly love is. You are worried about me aren't you?" KOS-MOS asked.

"you? Hah! As if… the pain you want to carry, your little swoon over a boy, disgusting. I simply don't want you to pull me down with your foolish actions" T-elos mocked, though the tone she trailed off with told otherwise.

"I guess I'll take that as a yes…" KOS-MOS smiled.

T-elos looked at KOS-MOS out of the corner of her eye then sighed and scoffed.

"if you tell anyone I will deny it, then immediately kill you before you even have a chance to run" T-elos growled at her. KOS-MOS chuckled as T-elos stood over her, before offering her hand down to her sister.

"don't screw it up. Make your life yours, not hers. I hope you know what your doing, I will not be there to save your unraveling life should you make such a horrible mistake" T-elos said as KOS-MOS took her hand and stood up.

"I won't. thank you" KOS-MOS laughed out, making T-elos look away and try and look angry.

"you have to be kidding me…" T-elos suddenly yelled out. In the distance, sitting on a bench, were 3 Spartans, all watching them.

"_nice show wasn't it Garrett?" Fred laughed hard._

"_I have no idea what I'm going to say to her… other than NO… not going to happen… she's a nice girl and all but… no" Garrett replied._

"_what's wrong? Afraid of having two girlfriends?" Kelly quipped._

"_polygamy isn't something I'd like to test Kelly, and frankly I don't think I could see KOS-MOS in that light… she's a good friend, a close friend but still just a friend. It isn't going anywhere past that. Besides, we ship out once we finish this fight and return home" Garrett growled through his thoughts._

"_ah, be glad to see Earth the way it's supposed to be for us" Kelly thought._

"_One problem. I hope T-elos doesn't go hostile suddenly on us, sitting on this bench like so-" Garrett thought before being cut off._

"YOU'VE BEEN SITTING THERE FOR HOW LONG?!" T-elos roared out, and all three Spartans dropped to a combat stance, their new rifles about to be raised.

"about thirteen minutes, give or take" Kelly replied.

"do our armories shoot popcorn and soda out? Wonder which listing I need to go for… c rations maybe?" Fred asked.

"can it you two. Alright, we've watched enough. Sorry for the eavesdropping but we were in the neighborhood and thought to escort you two back to the Elsa. We'll be dropping in a bit and it's not like we'll be coming back if we can help it" Garrett said as he stood up.

"_tranq is ready sir, should I hit her?" Linda thought._

"_mmm, hold that shot, if she rushes or pulls anything, THEN shoot. I know we're equipped now and all but I don't want to test the armor quite just yet in a battlefield situation… especially in an urban housing zone…" Garrett thought as he looked around the apartments and houses surrounding them._

"you militaristic, egotistical, overgrown alien infested bastards watched us?!" T-elos growled.

"well, not like we were gonna get in the way of that heartfelt talk… oh, and the Elsa recorded the whole conversation, just a heads up" Fred said, smiling under his visor.

T-elos was shocked.

"stop hiding it you two, about time you both acted human. Let's get going" Garrett said as he walked down the street.

"human! I wouldn't… I…" T-elos tried to finish but was cut short with a sneeze.

"looks like someone's catching a cold. Fighting in the rain can do that to people if they don't wear a coat. should be more careful" Garrett said as he walked straight up to both women.

"Garrett… I…" KOS-MOS tried to explain but stopped. He already knew. She looked away, defeated.

"KOS, I came here to pick up two friends we considered lost and needed to be gotten back. Are you two those friends or not?" Garrett asked her. She looked up at the golden visor as he offered his hand to her.

"I'm not looking for Majah, she's back at the ship. Are you two those friends KOS-MOS?" Garrett asked again. KOS-MOS smiled.

"last time I checked, yes I was. Thank you" she said as she took his hand.

"alright then. T-elos?" Garret asked.

"you insignificant… grrr…" T-elos growled.

"I'd take his other hand in symbolic friendship if I were you T-elos, we Spartans don't usually offer it a second time" Fred sternly said.

T-elos looked down at the armored gloved hand and took it after a minute of hesitation.

"alright, let's get back to the ship" Garrett said before releasing his handshakes with the girls.

"Linda, mission abort, no need" Garrett suddenly said as three Spartans walked towards a Shadow hover transport. Linda decloaked and walked towards the Shadow, engaging the safety of her sniper rifle.

"wait, Linda saw it as well?" KOS-MOS asked as she tried to keep up with the long strides Garrett took.

"Snipers are needed in all occasions, even family feuds" Garrett quipped.

The group ended the conversation and headed back to the Elsa.


	20. Welcome Mat

"Not a fucking chance…" Archerson growled out as Garrett walked in with his team.

"Status?" Garrett asked.

"fucked as of now. Take a look" Archerson said and motioned to the screen as everyone huddled around the soldiers.

The Covenant were setting up AA batteries and shade turrets all around the exterior of the Ark, now uncovered.

"same as before, let's just hope this doesn't create a portal…" Fred said as he watched for energy readings on the screen.

"do they have a dreadnaught?" Garrett asked.

"nothing yet, just phantoms, and sadly… one assault carrier" Halsey stated.

"are you kidding me?" Kelly asked.

"I wish I were Kelly, but unfortunately they have found a way to adapt the teleportation field to bring in a starship. And there is something very wrong with that ship as well" Halsey said gravely as she pressed a few buttons.

The Assault carrier was emitting sensor pings on all frequencies, sending data beyond the range of the Milky Way cross points. They were communicating, or so it showed.

"there can't be…" Archerson swallowed hard.

"there hasn't been a response yet for the request for reinforcements in this dimension, but that may only be a matter of time, something we are sorely lacking right now. We have to put the Ark on hold for a bit and do something even higher priority. Spartans, ten hut!" Halsey barked as all green armored soldiers stood at march stance.

"you will neutralize that carrier, we cannot allow them to gain more troops to repel us, we simply do not have the manpower, nor do the federation soldiers assisting us know truly how to fight Brutes. The other problem is if there really is another covenant force out there, then the elites and grunts have not yet broken away" the doctor sighed out, tired of the situation already.

"we could persuade them to join us instead of fighting, help us defend against the brutes and gain control of the Ark" Gad told her.

"I would rather not even have to gain first contact with them at all if we can, hence the assault on the carrier Lieutenant" Halsey told the elite, as he shifted on his hooves.

"what are we supposed to do then?" Shion asked.

"there is something else just as important for your team Shion. Your Team, along with T-elos and KOS-MOS, are to neutralize as many AA batteries as possible, punch a hole for two pelicans to raid the carrier and land. I don't have to really explain just how important it is to give those two pelicans an opening. If they are shot down, we will have just lost our Blue Team" Halsey gravely told her.

Shion and KOS-MOS both stared up at Garrett, whose face was still covered by his helmet.

"It's suicide for them! You're sending what, seven Spartans to take on a whole starship?!" Shion yelled out.

Every ODST laughed, hard.

"Hun, I don't quite think you realize just how scary even two of them are when they don't have to cover our asses. Seven of them… I really pity the bastards who have to take them on" Michaels chuckled.

"add on the fact they've just been given brand new armor and weaponry, I'd say seven is too many. Any of you big greens wanna come have fun with us downstairs instead? Volunteers much appreciated for the party we'll be having" Archerson joked.

"we'll pass, thanks. Besides, we gotta work on the fireworks display" Fred said before making a hand signal over his visor, a two finger V smile.

The ODSTs chuckled before Halsey turned on a schematic of two bombs.

"these are the LF3 Limpet Mines you will place inside the ship Spartans. One will be placed outside, the other will be placed inside the engineering section. These mines are fragile, I don't have to tell you just how careful you need to be with these explosives" Halsey said coldly.

Garrett looked over at Fred before he motioned with his hands an explosion sign. Fred nodded and made the hand sign "big."

"alright. Let's stop talking and move out. You have your orders" Halsey finished. Everyone filed out of the briefing room and out to the Elsa's AMWS bay as the Spartans locked their weapons to their backs and sides. T-elos and KOS-MOS checked their ammunition on their chain guns as Shion and the rest made sure their weapons were set up. The ODSTs loaded clips into their rifles and placed their helmets over their heads, checking pressure seals and rigging harnesses.

"we're dropping you guys off soon. LZ is gonna be hot, get set to come out swinging!" Mathews barked over the intercom.

"everyone ready?" Archerson asked as he looked at his team and Shion's.

"good to go!" Jr. yelled out.

"I am ready" KOS-MOS responded with a nod.

"let's move out" Ziggy solemnly said.

"let's do this!" Shion pumped her fist in the air.

"loading up, flying high, good luck you guys. Blue Team going dark in 5" Garrett said over the radio as the Spartan's disconnected from the channel for their own Trans communications net.

"touch down! Go go go!" Mathews yelled as the bay doors opened as federation ships landed nearby, dropping their marines alongside the Elsa.

Everyone piled out and ran as mortar fire erupted nearby, taking out 2 federation soldiers on impact. The Elsa Lifted off the ground immediately as the ODSTs split from Shion and the others and ran for a hillock.

"there's the first target!" Jr. pointed as an AA battery fired a plasma round, punching through the side of a federation dropship.

KOS-MOS and T-elos ran forward, aimed at the power core discharging from the bottom and opened up with their guns as the others returned fire with nearby brutes.

"look!" Momo said just as two pelicans dove out of the Elsa, gaining altitude.

"we don't have much time" Shion said just as the AA battery exploded and showered the area with super heated metal and plasma.

"we need to move faster!" Archerson yelled over the com just as the hell jumpers took out another AA gun.

"three shades! Heads down!" Ziggy yelled as the group ducked behind a barricade and landed on a dozen brute bodies.

"oh god…" Shion wrinkled up her face at the sight of the carnage just as a spike grenade flew by the side and detonated harmlessly nearby.

"they'll get better at throwing those things soon! We need to move!" Jr. yelled as he fired over the top, KOS-MOS and T-elos diving out and running full speed towards the shades. Two choppers rolled over a hill to intercept them, only to suddenly be blasted from a long range Spartan laser.

KOS-MOS looked up to see a slight green speck aiming something at the back of one of the pelicans, now the size of a fingernail in the sky.

"we've still got two more AA turrets! We have to take them out!" Archerson yelled.

"we're pinned! We can't move out! KOS-MOS! T-elos! Take out those turrets!" Shion barked out.

KOS-MOS leapt just as the lead shade fired, came down on the left side and ripped the side panel away just as the brute grabbed it's spike rifle. She dodged to the right as he fired, growling as she grabbed his wrist and snapped it before throwing him out and snapping his neck in one swift movement. T-elos fired an entire clip from her chain gun right into the second shade, shredding it's armor and killing the brute just as the third shade aimed at her landing point.

"T-elos! Look out!" KOS-MOS yelled and knocked her out of the way just as the white haired woman aimed her pistol and fired three rounds through the break in the side armor, right into the head of the brute.

"huff thanks…" T-elos mumbled out before getting back up and sprinting. The Helljumpers had just handled an armored column of AA wraiths and were moving towards their third turret.

"what's holding you guys up? We just about done on our side, finish off those other two!" Archerson barked out.

"Well we would fair better if we knew just what these brutes were capable of! They're throwing-" Shion tried to explain quickly as another chopper rounded the hill and fired.

"choppers at you? Yeah, it's called rockets. Use em" Archerson said before a long lance of fiery death lurched from a small tube in the distance, followed by a wraith exploding. Apparently the ODSTs came better prepared than Shion's group.

"the hole is wide enough now, blue is making a dash for it, brace yourselves" Halsey said over the com channel. Both Pelicans flew straight at the carrier as it fired it's weapons at them. They banked and rolled, dodging as they flew, just as a flock of banshees shot out to intercept them.

Just as the banshees were about to fire, multiple rounds flew out from federation AMWS, covering their movement and acting as interception. The pelicans winked green in response then dove towards the open bay door that the banshees flew out of, just before the shield started to reinitialize.

Both pelicans skidded across the bay floor and seven Spartans rolled out, guns blazing.

"good luck you guys" Archerson mumbled out.

"what the hell?! Oh no… the carrier is gaining altitude, it's trying to exceed orbit!" Majah said as she checked the power signatures of the covenant ship.

"you can't be serious, they're going to try and… well shit…" Archerson gravely said.

"what? What are they going to do?" Shion asked.

"glass the planet" Megan said.

"glass it? What do you mean?" Momo came onto the conversation.

"I mean fire every one of their plasma based weapons to char the continents and boil away the water, destroying the atmosphere, and killing all life… melting the dirt and sand all over the world equals glassing. Glass the planet. I hope the Spartans realize what's about to happen…" she finished, staring up at the ship becoming a spec in the sky.

--

Garrett and blue team ran full speed, shredding a path through any brutes they came across towards engineering. The brute shots were starting to wear down their shielding, as the Spartans took time outs to recharge their energy banks.

_You feel that? We're heading through atmosphere…_ Linda thought.

_That isn't good… we gotta double time it!_ Garrett responded and the Spartans charged, threw a slew of grenades through the door of engineering before diving for cover. A wave of spike grenades answered in turn towards where they used to be.

_Covering fire, 2 sec burst, 30 meter danger close. Clear and burn through, prep for package delivery_ Garrett ordered. 6 lights winked green as Kelly blurred out of cover and dove towards an exhaust port for the engines, hacked the safety locks and opened the shielding cage. The reactor hummed loudly as the cage opened, followed by her hands deftly activating the limpet mine she was carrying. Linda's aim rang true throughout most of the fire fight, as every sniper round was either in the head or heart of the brutes.

Garrett sprayed rifle fire towards a brute trying to flank them just as Linda felt rather than saw the grenade fly towards them, before Fred caught it mid air and returned it in a counter throw.

_Mine primed and hot, we need to get out of here_ Kelly thought.

_Fallback suppression fire, advance backwards, timer Kelly? _Garrett thought.

_5 min, plenty of time_ Kelly responded back.

_5 sec fallback covering fire, leap frog every 2. Return to pelicans_ Garrett ordered just as a brute leapt onto him, his senses dulled somewhat. He rolled with the furry hostile against the wall, blocked a punch that would have shattered a normal man's arm on impact, exchanged a kick to get the brute off him just as the door closed 2 feet from him, cutting him off from the rest of his team.

_Hacking the system, it may take some time to get the door opened considering we don't have an AI with us…_ Ash said thinking back to Athena who didn't want to go anywhere near a combat zone with "barbarians."

_Negative, fallback to pelicans, I'll find another route_.

Six lights winked green, although warily. They knew he could survive the drop from the ship with his secondary armor package, they simply worried the ship would shoot him out of the sky without the pelican's flares and chaff launchers to cover his escape.

--

Majah tensed as she saw two pelicans flit out of the carrier flying above, only to register six life signs inside, and the designation number 003 wasn't among them.

"Lieutenant, no life sign showing of the MC, verify" Majah said over the com.

"Lieutenant is finding another route out of the ship, was cut off mid dust off from blue team. Should we belay his orders and return and gather?" Fred responded.

Majah sighed and thought for a moment. Shion and the rest of the crew down below waited for her response.

"negative, if he says he can find another route, so be it. Return to ship, defensive cover inbound, prep for flak nearby, bumpy ride ahead blue team" Majah told them.

"roger that, friendly fire nearby, careful on the perimeter, chaff launchers are chattering" Fred told her.

_I know how to do my job Spartan…_ Majah thought annoyed as she keyed in the coordinates for a cover strike. The back door of the Elsa opened up, revealing four brand new recently set up "Thundercracker II" AA MAC 32 Cannons, each loaded with specially hardened quadratic armor piercing high explosives.

"fire for effect" Majah barked as her ear mics closed off all sound outside of the cushions as the cannons roared to life, firing as fast as the dock cage could recycle it's clip connection. 3 of the first 4 rounds barely flew by the pelicans, waking the Spartans up. The rounds flew within feet of the armored hulls, before hitting incoming torpedo fire following them.

"verified, rounds are precise… covering fire effective" Fred told her. Majah smirked, as she could hear the lilt of his uneasiness with the rounds being so close, as well as the respect he just had for her capabilities.

_You boys and girls aren't used to having MY kind of skills backing you up…_ she chuckled to herself.

Suddenly, the limpet mine went off.

"verify! Spartan 003 has left the ship?! Do you have contact with MC?!" Majah yelled into the com. Silence for a few seconds.

"Negative… no contact… nothing flew out of the ship…" Fred responded solemnly.

"no…" Majah clenched her fists near the keyboard. Tears started to well up in her eyes.

"blue team return to Elsa, mission effective…" Majah said, her voice tinted with pain.

"hang on! I've got something…" Linda said over the com.

"is that a dumpster?" Ash gawked as he saw what looked like a metal canister burning through the atmosphere with what looked like multiple grav pads attached to the outside.

((Hocus, Hocus Pocus Song))

A small head poked slightly out of the lid, looked around with a gold visor, realized where he was in accordance with the rest of the universe, and closed the lid.

"HAHA! HE IS! HE REALLY IS IN IT!" Fred yelped to everyone around him.

Suddenly, what looked like debris, skipped against the side of the dumpster and sent it spinning quickly around, but still entered correctly through the atmosphere.

"oh that must have been fun…" Ash mumbled as Garrett sat inside the tin can he was in, bracing himself against the sides as the whole world continued to flatten him against one of the walls.

"be advise ground teams, container is heading towards… Shion, Spartan 003 is moving towards your direction, get ready for an interesting… surprise…" Linda desperately tried to say without laughing.

Shion looked up to see the flaming box hurdling towards them, the grav pads pushing each way to keep the thing maneuvered.

"Garrett! Garrett are you okay?" Shion asked through her com rig.

"Just peachy…" Garrett groaned inside his make shift drop pod.

"isn't he gonna slam into the ground though? Won't that… you know, kill him?" Allen asked. Shion thought over that for a moment before looking back up, distress in her eyes. The dumpster headed right towards the ground, but started to slow quite rapidly, the grav pads pulsing quickly now, before reaching the ground, the lid opening, and out falling a green armored soldier, upside down, before the dumpster shot into the air again, minus half a ton of Spartan.

Garrett rolled over and looked up, only to see the dumpster coming down for a return visit, on top of him.

"Not my day…" Garrett mumbled and rolled out of the way, just as the dumpster slammed into the ground, apparently missing a few grav pads that had ripped off from the reversal it had recently done. He stood up, holding his head and wobbling, trying to keep his bearings.

KOS-MOS and crew ran up to him, watching him wobble on his feet from the interesting flight he had just had.

"wouldn't it have been easier to steal one of the enemy's ships?" Archerson said.

"all broken. Hold that thought…" Garrett said before popping his helmet seal and promptly vomiting on the ground.

"I thought all Spartans were Zegee trained to handle those things" Megan whispered.

"you didn't spin for 9 minutes through an orbital re-entry in a brute trash can" Garrett responded before wiping his mouth on his armored sleeve and putting his helmet back on. KOS-MOS smiled slightly at the comedic traveling Spartans seem to use when the correct vehicles were not available to them.

Garrett sat down for a second, closing his eyes to get his head straight.

_Blue team, Blue leader is in the land of the living, no posthumous rank increasing today_ Garrett thought.

_Nice entry into the world, I don't quite think I've ever seen such a spectacular display of flying in my life _Kelly laughed.

_That thing looked like it was more reliable than the standard ODST drop pod… maybe we should use those from now on _Ash said trying to stifle a laugh.

"MC, verify your status immediately" Majah barked an order over the com.

"Blue leader is alive and well, no wounds apparent, apologies for the scare" Garrett responded.

"Blue leader, next time there is a change in plans, you will alert me immediately do you understand?!" Majah barked at him.

"understood command, slipped my mind under current circumstances, won't happen again" Garrett responded, sighing.

"maybe you should be placed through the basic communications and command protocols again to keep your brain sharp so it doesn't!" Majah yelled.

"will take any reprimand necessary… Mission complete, returning to Elsa" Garrett responded.

"welcome mat is open, I expect a debriefing in 3 Spartan" Majah said before cutting the link and sighing. She ran a hand through her hair before blowing a baing from her face, relief etched in her eyes.

--

3 hours later

--

Spartan 003 walked into the briefing room only to find Majah standing there.

"ma'am, Blue Leader reporting for debriefing as ordered… and any reprimands command has in store for me" Garrett stood at attention towards her. She sighed and turned around.

"at ease" she said as he stood at casual stance.

Silence filled the air as Garrett still looked straight ahead.

"full ease Master Chief" Majah sighed out. Garrett looked at her with a sad expression on his face.

"sorry. I was protecting the team, I didn't mean to-" she cut him off.

"you always worry me like that every time you go on another mission after seeing me. When will you learn you don't have to scare the living crap out of me to make me notice you?" Majah slightly chuckled.

"Certs, it really WAS the only form of flyable protection I could get my hands on. I'm being honest" Garrett told her.

"you can't be serious, middle of a covenant carrier and you couldn't find ONE phantom that was functional?" Majah gawked at him.

"brutes aren't known for being mechanically inclined."

"that is true, they always have to rely on those floating engineers they have… or had" Majah said as she thought back to the engineers leaving for the elites ships and abandoning the fight against humanity. Many of them were killed, but what survived the elites protected.

"or the drones, but with them gone it's not like they can keep their ships in full functioning status" the Spartan said as he looked around. He heard footsteps coming down the hallway and turned. The rest of blue team entered into the briefing room as well as Shion and her gang.

"Mission a success" Majah told them as Jr. jumped and hollered, Archerson barking in approval and the ODSTs visually sagging in relief. KOS-MOS watched with interest as the UNSC soldiers all congratulated each other on a job well done.

"It's not over yet though, we still need to get inside the Ark. We'll need to be well rested up before we can attempt that, with the loss of the carrier the brutes will be closing up their defenses, tightening patrols and increasing soldier accounts to block off any attacks. We'll be hard pressed" Halsey said behind everyone.

"I agree. We should get some rest before another attempt to go in" Majah told everyone.

"alright, take 5 everybody, don't get too rowdy or I'm gonna be the one who throws you out in the combat zone. Naked" Archerson barked at everyone. The Helljumpers laughed.

"is he really serious?" KOS-MOS asked Garrett.

"doubtful, it's his way of telling everyone to take it easy" Garrett responded, towering over her in a black shirt and fatigues.

"you've learned a lot about the Helljumpers since your time working with them huh?" Majah asked.

"you pick up a lot about the normal workings of Marines compared to a Spartan layout, they don't have the same tech to play with compared to me, so it's mostly figure out how to make something complicated like cutting through a door fairly basic, turning it into setting a charge and blowing it off it's hinges" Garrett told her.

"doesn't that make a lot of noise?" KOS-MOS asked.

"apparently you don't get to play with many new explosives here KOS-MOS. The advancement in high explosives has come a long way where we come from compared to here I'm guessing. We can set a charge to pop hinges of a door, letting it fall and make it look as if the braces just snapped on their own. From what we've noticed of your tech here, it isn't that advanced. Relying on worm holes to get from point A to point B? shielding on ships involves kinetic barriers? The weapons on most of your ships granted is useable, laser cannons and the like, but with our tech it's become simply point defense. Laser cannons are a thing of the past, directed plasma weaponry, MAC guns, the new Archer XII missile systems, all of them far exceed the combat capabilities of the current federation fleet we've seen. We're not even talking about some of the more interesting weaponry the Spartans carry…" Majah explained to her.

"like what?" Shion asked, overhearing the conversation.

"well, for instance, a singularity ignition rifle. Currently in prototype phase, and probably will never be used. Hopefully. It's based on the halo technolo… oh shit" Majah went silent as she covered her mouth with her hand. Garrett looked at her oddly.

"when were you going to tell me about this new tech as well?" Garrett asked.

"it's just a prototype weapon system, it was a jump point for newer tech to be worked on, it's nothing to worry about" Majah tried to calm him down.

"if it's based on Halo weaponry then it can't be good for anything, nor would it be a good idea for us to find out on our own mid fire fight" Garrett told her.

"what does Halo weaponry do?" Shion asked.

"Halo was a fortress world, a large ring world placed at multiple juncture points in the galaxy to coordinate a full sterilization of the flood's food. The Halos would activate and send a neutron pulse capable of killing all organic life within a 25,000 light year radius, continuing the said pulse by sending a communique to the other Halos to fire in unison. What you effectively have is a sterile galaxy with nothing living in it, well, at least nothing living that's large enough to sustain the flood" Majah explained.

"who would create such a weapon?" Shion exclaimed.

"the forerunners, our ancients if you will. They did it to save the galaxy and other galaxies from the flood infesting and eating everyone. They sacrificed themselves in the process to do this. It's a terrible weapon, one that hopefully will never be used again" Majah told her.

"you're dimension seems… rougher… than ours…" Shion said.

"we've had to go through a lot, not just the gnosis you've fought, at least you were able to fend them off on some level. We couldn't even do that at the time, our technology tier was far lower than the covenant, they brushed us aside every time" Majah looked away solemnly.

"still, that's a terrible weapon, I'm surprised anyone would build something like that. There had to be some other choice they could have made instead of killing everything!" Shion exclaimed.

Majah sighed. Halsey chipped in. "that was their last resort Shion. They had nothing left. We were able to get fragmented data from the Ark before Spartan 117 destroyed it. The last battle for the forerunners was between their 114 million ships versus the flood's 784 billion. They were outnumbered. They did what they needed to do" Halsey told her.

"that many ships?! Incredible!" Shion gawked.

"the forerunners were a tier 1 civilization Shion, they were planet building people, fleets of that size were nothing. And yet they still died. They fought to protect earth because we were there, something they wanted to protect. We still haven't figured out if they protected us because of our evolution being similar to theirs, or our genetic makeup being similar. We do know that the Ais that watched over the left over technology call us "Reclaimers" and that the Spartans are considered the fore front activators of the rings" Halsey finished.

KOS-MOS and Shion looked up at Garrett, who crossed his arms over his chest and watched their expressions.

"similar to how KOS-MOS stopped Zarathustra and saved this universe, a Spartan stopped the Halos AND the flood from destroying humanity. However, we only saved our Galaxy. We still don't quite know if we finished the flood or if there is a looming threat past the rim. The only thing we can do is fight off the remaining covenant that won't accept their journey is false and rebuild" Halsey told them.

"hopefully we'll have a chance to do that here as well" Shion said.

"we'll help where we can until we leave, after that, your future is in your hands alone" Halsey told her.

KOS-MOS looked up at Garrett. They were nearing the completion of their journey. Afterwards she would never see him again. Her heart was tearing itself apart knowing that her new friends would disappear from her life forever once everything was done.

--

((This is a really short chapter as I'm just getting back into this story, sorry for the long wait, I've actually been working on a short film work up involving a sort of harry potter flick (not harry potter directly, just a funny little skit involving why they don't fly with their broomstick bristles forwards like ancient witches did in history :3 ) anyways, sorry if this looks garbled and half written, will probably redo it later with more effort if I get around to it. As for the flying dumpster part, it's a hats off to bungie's secret dumpster flying move you can do in Halo 3 Campaign))


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